Important+Features+and+Policies+of+the+EU

By: Stacy M.

One of the major goals the EU since it was established has been to form a single market in which the economies of all the EU member states are unified. The EU has done this in three different ways: by defining a common commercial policy, by reducing economic differences among its richer and poorer members, and by stabilizing the currencies of its members. By the year of 1968 the EU had created a custom union in which all taxes and duties among members were eliminated. Finally, the members had a defined uniform for trading with nations that were not members. Around the 1980s the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) had been formed to regulate fishing in EU waters.   The EU has also attempted to direct economic differences through agencies such as the European Social Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund, and the European Investment Bank (EIB). These agencies provide money through loans or grants to promote development in the economically disadvantaged unlucky parts of the EU. However, apart from activities of the EIB, this funding is limited because they can’t give away all their money to poor countries by the size of the EU’s overall budget, which is equivalent to about 1 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of all the member states.   Finally the EU has also attempted to stabilize the currencies between all the members with the European Monetary System (EMS). “The EMS was prompted not only by the desire for a single market, but also by international economic problems and fluctuations in exchange rates. These problems also convinced the EU of the importance of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in which both the economies and the currencies of the members would be unified.”  [|[i]]

[|[i]] Derek W. Urwin, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.    "European Union," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2008 [|http://encarta.msn.com] © 1997-2008 Microsoft Corporation. 