Essay Sample on European Union: A Unique Model of Interdependence and Peace

The European Union is an economic and political partnership representing a unique type of cooperation among its member states. The Union was started at the end of World War II by six countries in Western Europe. The aim was to promote economic recovery and peace in the states that were involved in the war. EU founders hoped that by earning sovereignty in financial sectors, cooperation would encourage interdependence and discourage any thoughts of conflicts in Europe (Bohmelt & Freyburg, 2013). The Europe Union has undergone rapid expansion over the years since it was first established. Currently, the organization has 28 member states, which include most of the former countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The EU was created through a series of treaties. It has the elements of both an intergovernmental organization and a supranational entity. Over time, EU member states have focused on harmonizing laws and adopting standard policies on numerous issues. In May 2004, the EU sought to expand into the Eastern and Central regions of Europe. The expansion included the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Malta. This expansion has been the biggest since the EU was founded. However, this expansion came with its share of benefits and challenges to the EU and member states. For this reason, this paper examines the challenges faced by the EU in admitting the Central and Eastern Nations into membership.

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In terms of geography, the 2004 expansion expanded the EU's territory by about 23%. These regions have a population of about 75 million people; thus, the EU's population increased by at least a fifth to get to 455 million people generally. This is a significant expansion for such an organization, and thus it cannot be devoid of any challenges. The first challenge that faced the EU was the concern about how the rapid increase in the number of member states from 15 to 25 would affect the operations of the organization (Cameron, 2014). A more significant number of member countries would potentially have adverse impacts on the Council of Ministers' legislative capacity. The increase in heterogeneity and the number of the preferences of member states would also interfere with the productive process of decision making in a union that relied mostly upon a unanimous agreement (Bohmelt & Freyburg, 2013). The EU also faced challenges in terms of the threat of gridlock as a result of the council's practice of aiming for unanimous decisions even in cases where formal policies allowed for the qualification of majority voting.

The second challenge was in terms of administering the Acquis. Following the expansion/accession negotiations, the potential member countries agreed that they would adopt the acquis of the European Union with only a small number of transitional phase-ins like those that pertain to land sales and movement of people. For old member states, the acquis had slowly accumulated over a long period (half a century) an often represented the incremental or amendment adjustment of previous policies (Sitter et al., 2016). The accumulated acquis often resulted from political negotiations between member states within the EU. However, during the accession, the new member states were required to sign a treaty that required them to develop the complete acquis in a very short time and get conversant with its details, thus treating it like theirs. From the official date of accession, both the operations and outcomes of policies across every policy domain were changed. Additionally, following accession, the new member states were readjusted to countries (Sedelmeier, 2014). These states were required to commit to policy-making processes and outcomes that many times did not bear any relation to their previous local policymaking and decision-making process.

The politics reflected the policymaking processes, policy choices, and politics of the European Union and other initial member states. The new member states were forced to accept that the remaking of the states and their policy and decision processes was the ultimate price that they required to pay to gain access to the membership benefits (Cameron, 2014). Even if the new member states do not find it objectionable to commit to the development and implementation of thousands of pages of regulations, policy, and directive requirements in formulating systems that they did not have any influence on, the EU still faces a challenge of whether or not these states will be able to implement the acquis (Malova & Dolny, 2008). It is unclear to the EU that the new member states' governments-more so the ones formed through party coalitions, or those that lack a majority parliamentary system-will possess the administrative capacity to implement and adopt policies consistent with the acquis with the looming threat of political opposition. It is also unclear to the EU whether new member states will have the administrative powers to develop the acquis and the regulations and policies guiding it.

Another significant challenge that faces the EU expansion to the central and Eastern regions is concerning political difficulties. In the wake of the EU expansion and transition, popular government and control accountability decreased notably to the elections. This decrease has resulted in an increased risk of disengagement from the political life founded on distrust and disillusionment in federal governments. The national ministries and government in the new member countries were the actors that were mainly managing the expansion process. Therefore it became hard to gain the trust of the citizens in these areas (Sitter et al., 2016). The political turmoil that followed the accession only shows that although the member countries secured the EU membership, they lost a big part of their leadership in terms of the social, political, and economic development. In the new member states, none of the prime ministers succeeded in maintaining their positions after the accession. This situation has posed a challenge to the EU. Because members and governments in the new member states have lost trust in the political processes and the positions that they hold in the EU, the Union does not have much success in implementing its policies and regulations in these countries.

Similarly, another challenge that faces both the EU and member states is concerning the extension of reforms. In addition to implementing and adopting the acquis, new EU member states of the Eastern and Central Europe are faced with the challenge of deepening and extending the reforms that have continued within the union for the past ten years. These reforms are meant to formulate the regulatory norms, institutions, policies, and regulation characteristics of a market-oriented economy (Sedelmeier, 2014). In sectors such as the price liberalization, foreign and trade exchange, and privatization of small scale, the reforms have gone on to the extent that their economies are now comparable to the ones of the advanced industrial economies. However, in other policy aspects such as enterprise restructuring and corporate governance, regulation of non-banking institutions, security markets, and policy competition, the reforms have not mainly progressed. This, therefore, creates a dilemma for the EU (Michalski, 2006). Without proper reforms in member countries, the EU cannot effectively trade among the nations and can, therefore, not implement policies and benefits equally.

Another challenge facing the EU in terms of the expansion is concerned with the financing of the accession. The EU faces a significant challenge when it comes to financing the accession. The member states that joined the EU in 2004 definitely received more money from the EU than they paid into the EU in the initial years of membership (Cameron, 2014). The difference between what they received and what they will pay is significant because most of the countries have currencies that are weaker than the Euro Currency. This means that the money that they received was more valuable in their countries (Capello & Perucca, 015). The EU was obligated to provide the member countries with financial compensation both as special cash-flow facilities and temporary budget compensations to make sure that none of the countries ended up in worse situations than before they were members of the EU. In 2004, the EU spent over 10.5 billion Euros to commit to market measures in agricultural programs in order to assist the member countries with structural actions, rural development, as well as internal policies (Ilieva, Dashtevski, & Ristovska, 2017). These commitments have rapidly increased over the years, and in 2005, the EU was expected to pay a total of 13.5 billion Euros. As the EU continues to support the new member countries with their development and policies, it continues to incur costs. It is a challenge for the EU to give money to these countries with the knowledge that they will not give back the money in time to cover the compensations.

Another significant challenge that continues to face the EU concerning the expansion is in regards to decision-making processes within the Council. There are concerns that the Council will need to accommodate more representatives from the member countries into other EU institutions. As it is evident, the countries included in the EU in 2004 contributed to a significant increase in the population within the EU. This move could, therefore, mean that the organization will have to add a large number of representatives from all the countries into the various institutions (Ilieva, Dashtevski, & Ristovska, 2017). This situation creates concern over decision-making processes. As it was before the accession, it was hard for representatives from the 25 initial member states to formulate unanimous decisions. The conflict regarding decision making played a huge part in the British Exit. Therefore, member countries were concerned about how more substantial numbers of representatives would affect decision making. Members alleged that such a move would bring about derailments in the decision-making processes (Sitter et al., 2016). Most notably, for the European parliament and the commission, the expansion would lead to indigestion.

The most significant concern has been that adding a large number of commissioners and members of parliament in the EU governing body would impede active and effective internal working. The addition of more members would also interfere with the effective allocation of tasks and responsibilities within the union (Michalski, 2006). Also, more concerns continue to be raised concerning adding more commissioners from new member states.

Current evidence shows that there has not been any significant impact on the speed of decision making. However, opponents of the expansion allude that more commissioners would decrease or slow the pace and rate of decision making even in a case where output quantity remains the same (Koczkas, 2015). This discovery means that goals that are intended to be achieved within a, for example, two year period would eventually be obtained but they may take five years instead of the three. Opponents of expansion add that there have not been any significant changes in the rate of decision-making processes because the EU has not encountered a situation where it needed to make serious decisions that will impact a broader audience. If this time comes, the large number of commissioners will negatively impact the speed of decision making.

Another challenge that has been faced and continues to be confronted by the EU following the 2004 expansion is concerned with innovative legislation. The continuity in quantity of legislative output notwithstanding, research s...