A guide to EU

The European Coal and Steel Community was formed by the Treaty of Paris in 1952, emerging from the economic ruins of Europe after the Second World War. The Treaty of Rome then established the European Community (EC) in 1958, built on the belief that there should never be a major war in Europe again. The overriding aims of this new community were to promote economic progress and co-operation in Europe and to guarantee a peaceful continent for years to come.

The United Kingdom joined the Community in 1973 under the premiership of Edward Heath. A referendum, the first of its kind in the UK, was held in 1975, and confirmed the UK’s membership by a significant majority.

Community policy now covers a large number of areas. It covers market regulation, social policy, the environment, regional policy and many other areas. Since 1992 the EC has been known as the European Union (EU) and, through its Common Foreign and Security Policy, it has now started to move into defence, a controversial area as the furore over the proposed Rapid Reaction Force shows.

European Policies

The European Union covers an increasingly large range of policy areas. There are, however, a number of key areas:

The Single Market

The Single European Market, first mooted in 1986 in the Single European Act, is an ambitious, on-going project to liberalise European markets by lifting barriers to trade between the member states of the European Union. This is accompanied by a European competition policy, which, despite chronic under-staffing, is sometimes considered to be more powerful than that of national states.

Environment polices

As pollution does not respect national borders, environmental policy is a natural contender for action at the European level. The EU has introduced a number of ambitious targets in this field, and regularly monitors the performance of individual member states.

Economic and Monetary Union

EMU is an ambitious project to forge together the national currencies of the European Union into one single European currency, the euro. The first euro notes and coins will be introduced in early 2002. The UK's entry into EMU is undecided; the government has promised a referendum on entry once they have assessed and met the Treasury's five economic tests.

The Common Agricultural Policy

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the most expensive policy in the EU, eating up nearly 50% of the total EU budget. Successive attempts at reform have failed in the face of powerful farming interests. However, reform is now a major priority as the EU prepares to enlarge.

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