The EU wants to prove that it is still attractive to someone, while Balkan countries, viewing EU members as richer and more stable than themselves, hope some of that residual wealth and stability will rub off.
Another curious case of EU membership that may soon arise is Scotland. This, of course, is a contradiction in terms because Scotland would become a separate but minor province of the EU under this plan rather than a truly independent state. Salmond assumes that an independent Scotland would not have to apply for membership because it is already in the EU as a part of the United Kingdom.
True, Salmond now says he wants to retain the pound sterling as the currency for Scotland and not as until recently the euro. Yet Scots will soon be offered this tartan pig in a poke. Superficially, the EU seems to have made great progress since the Treaty of Rome.
Almost every aspect of policy is now determined by bureaucrats in Brussels in combination with the European Council and the European Parliament. The EU even has its own foreign service and is struggling to create its own intelligence and federal police services. No wonder it impresses Arabs and Africans, whose own struggles for unity have, relatively speaking, gone nowhere. The trouble, however, is that the EU as a whole is in absolute demographic decline and relative economic and technological decline, and its major policies — whether the common fisheries and agriculture policies or the euro and monetary union — have failed.
In terms of foreign and security policies, it is an international joke. It spends next to nothing on defense, and even its main contributors in this area, Britain and France, have seen their armed forces so severely cut recently that in the Libyan war, where Europe "took the lead," they were entirely dependent on U.
If the EU boasts of its reliance on "soft power," that is because it has no choice. Her position sums up everything that is wrong with the EU — expensive but ineffective. The fundamental problem with the EU, however, is that the people of Europe have no faith in it and do not identify with it. Its key decision-making bodies — the European Council, Court of Justice, and European Commission — are, for all practical purposes, unelected, unaccountable, and removed from the people commissioners are usually washed-up has-beens whose political careers in their home states have ended in failure.
Their decisions are irreversible in national parliaments, and the European Parliament, while vested with powers of co-decision-making with the European Council, is also remote.
The Parliament is a glorified debating society — not a government with an official opposition — and its parties cannot promise any fundamental policy changes in their election manifestos; indeed, its election outcomes rarely have an impact on the course of EU politics.
Its members are unknown and despised as opportunists who merely seek inflated salaries, perks, expenses, and pensions. One of the most egregious examples of the lack of democracy in the EU is the practice of making small states that vote "no" in EU referenda vote again. Denmark had to vote twice on the Maastricht Treaty, while Ireland was forced to go two rounds on the Nice Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty.
Big states are not immune from this kind of bullying treatment, either. In addition, as a union of 27 nations, the EU has greater global power than if each individual country acted separately. Other advantages include the upholding of high environmental standards and the safeguarding of human rights.
With attractions such as these, several European nations have applied to join the EU over the last decade. This article looks at the stages that each candidate country has reached in the process as an indication of how the size and shape of the EU will continue to evolve over the coming years.
The European Union has increased in size significantly since its foundation. Countries first started to cooperate in the early s, the European Economic Community EEC , which would later become the European Union, was formalised by The last major period of growth was in when 10 countries joined the union.
Any country that meets the conditions for EU membership may apply to join the European Union. These requirements are known as the Copenhagen criteria and state that a country must have, among other things, a stable democracy and rule of law, and accept all EU legislation.
Once a country is named a candidate it must adopt EU rules and regulations as national law. As membership talks stall, other nations such as China and Russia have been quick to provide investments and exert influence on countries in the region. The EU has so far offered more finance to the Western Balkans, but divisions between members mean that enlargement seems off the menu for now. This content is not available in your region. Text size Aa Aa. Could North Macedonia be the graveyard of the EU's ideals?
EU's credibility 'undermined' if North Macedonia delayed from joining the bloc. Montenegro wants to join the EU - but will Brussels have it? Serbia and Kosovo reach agreement on de-escalation at border, EU envoy confirms. Kosovo-Serbia: Can the EU really broker a peace deal?
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