The Establishment of the European Union

hello everybody welcome back to another episode of mega projects this one is all about the european union institution that my country made the brave decision to leave not really that was probably a mistake let's get into it but before we do this video is brought to you by news voice the news is broken almost all u.s media is owned by just a handful of big corporations fake news huge problem as well and finding something unbiased can be hard news voice is revolutionizing the news landscape it is an app that gives you a personalized news feed by aggregating major news sites as well as international independent media giving some much needed balance each news story shows multiple sources which are all tagged with their bias and perspective the news affects almost everything in our lives what we hear and read shapes which people we trust what we eat what we buy how we vote even how we think and look you just clicked on a video all about the european union so you're pretty smart you're going to like news voice news voice is created by its readers as you can upvote stories that you find interesting so more people will see them it's essentially a democratized platform for news plus it saves you time you get all of the news and all of the sources in one app so that you can be better informed and it's totally free what get started with news voice today for free through the link below it's available on both google play and the app store and let's get into it [Music] out of the ashes of world war ii a new europe emerged divided roughly between east and west capitalism and communism this new europe it lasted just shy of 50 years before the fall of the berlin wall set in motion a dizzying series of events with the soviet union collapsing yet another europe was about to appear on the 1st of november 1993 a new united continent began to take shape the age of the european union had begun much has been said about the european union since those heady days of the early 1990s britain's seemingly never-ending departure known by a word that i think every single british person is absolutely sick of brexit has shone a light more than ever on the grand union of countries the european union has been divisive from the outset and if anything age has only exacerbated these problems it is a complex structure that governs laws freedom of movement borders trade and much more it is a topic that has a habit of rousing raw emotion in many but it remains a stand-alone project visionary or disastrous let's take a look shall we nowhere on earth has such bloodshed been seen than in europe the first half of the 20th century saw wars on a previously unimaginable scale tear europe apart except for a few countries who remained neutral during the world wars the impacts on almost every nation was horrific just in case you're wondering about the neutral european countries switzerland denmark sweden and monaco remained out of world war one while andorra ireland portugal spain sweden switzerland liechtenstein and the vatican were neutral during world war ii i suppose it is kind of hard to imagine the pope whipping out a machine gun but before all of the 20th you measure that picture of winston churchill you know with the gun just a picture of the pope with the same thing but before all of the 20th century carnage there have been a growing movement of european solidarity victor hugo who wrote le miserables even went so far as to use the phrase the united states of europe at the international peace congress held in paris in 1849. obviously these ideals fell on deaf ears as the continent eventually collapsed into the largest war the world had ever known with estimates of total deaths thought to be in the region of 17 million efforts to form some sort of consolatory system backfired in catastrophic circumstances as 21 years after the end of the great war a new epic struggle began which would totally eclipse it the second great conflict of the 20th century led to between 70 and 85 million people around the world losing their lives around three percent of the total global population in terms of tragedy nothing comes even close we've recently done a video on megaprojects all about the marshall plan a us-led reconstruction plan to aid the shell-shocked and obliterated europe now if you want more on the marshall plan then absolutely do go head on over to that video we're going to kind of skip over it a lot of it here because you know we've only got limited time and we do want to deal with the eu but in short the marshall plan helped kick-start europe's rejuvenation well i mean the western countries at least those nations that formed the eastern bloc principally anything east of the berlin wall also received assistance of sorts from the soviet union but it was hardly comparable now it's important to remember the europe had been pulled apart by extreme nationalism countries were eager not to make the same mistakes has made the treaty of versailles in which germany was punished harshly for its role in the first world war and which most people agree led in part to world war ii almost as soon as the guns fell silent there was talk of a united europe one of the early supporters was none other than british prime minister winston churchill who gave a speech at the university of zurich on the 19th of september 1946 in which the term united states of europe was used again at the hague congress in 1948 two fundamental structures were put in place which began the road to european unity these were the european movement international a lobbying association campaigning for better coordination in europe and the college of europe based primarily in bruges and belgium which was designed to educate and provide accommodation for europe's future leaders these were small steps but in 1949 the first major step was taken with the establishment of the council of europe the ten founding members included belgium denmark france ireland italy luxembourg the netherlands norway sweden and the united kingdom the focus of the council was on human rights and democracy and it didn't really include anything on trade or economics the council of europe still exists today and currently has 47 member states and is often seen as a stepping stone to a european union membership while its aims were undoubtedly admirable some countries wanted things taken even further when it came to trade issues in 1952 the european coal and steel community was formed consisting of belgium france italy luxembourg the netherlands and west germany to regulate their industrial production but also placing it under a centralized authority this was the first real shot of what would go on to become the eu's trade and free market agreements if you're wondering why coal and steel well it was for two key reasons firstly both were enormous industries that would play a key role in future development and hence could make a considerable profit secondly and much more honorably coal and steel were both seen as vital for waging war advocates for the european coal and steel community believed that by tying each nation's coal and steel industry together it might help to prevent another outbreak of war now this sounds a little sentimental and perhaps unrealistic to our pessimistic modern brains but such was the devastation in 1945 that you can only admire this attempt to ensure long-term peace and look if you're starting to get confused we've mentioned a lot of organizations already well bad news we've only just begun there were numerous organizations treaties and collaborations which often worked in parallel to one another this was not so much a linear system of improvement until the establishment of the eu in 1993 but rather a slightly scattergunned approach as the continent tried numerous different methods but generally they were all working towards just a more united europe in 1957 the treaty of rome led to the formation of the european economic community or eec which included belgium france italy luxembourg the netherlands and west germany the eec led to the establishment of a customs union which means no customs duties are paid on goods moving around the union and also spawned the european atomic energy community eurotom to develop nuclear energy so if you're still following along we have the european coal and steel community the european economic community and the european atomic energy community all up and running and all pretty much working to build a stronger continent it wasn't until 1965 that somebody had the bright idea of merging these three organizations into one now known as the european communities over the next two decades numerous nations joined the european communities greenland even joined and then left over disagreements about fishing regulations while the norwegian government agreed to join but was voted down by a referendum in the country the last major change before the establishment of the eu came in 1985 with the schengen agreement which would eventually abolish border checks throughout member countries although it wouldn't be fully implemented for another 10 years [Music] the fall of the berlin wall in november 1991 was a momentous event that was felt the world over as the ussr began to crumble and individual nations broke free it began to look like a united europe might finally be on the cards german chancellor hal mccoll and french president francois mitterrand were considered two of the key players in the signing of the maastricht treaty on the 7th of february 1992 though it came into effect the following year which formed the eu originally with just germany france italy the netherlands belgium and luxembourg these were heady days with the first elections held in 1994 and the schengen agreement fully implemented in 1995. excitement was in the air at new europe was taking shape the eu slowly expanded and in 1995 austria finland and sweden joined in 2004 the largest single intake saw cyprus the czech republic estonia hungary latvia lithuania malta poland slovakia and slovenia joined the union in 2007 bulgaria and romania joined the eu with croatia becoming the 28th member in 2013. the political and decision-making system that the eu uses is a complex one and one that has led to numerous disagreements over the years eu laws can roughly be divided into two firstly we have the laws that are implemented without the need for each country to ratify them known as regulations the seconds known as directives specifically require national implementation measures these are often seen as goals that the eu countries agree to but how each country gets there can be different one example of an eu regulation is the common safeguard of goods imported into the eu this regulation is the same wherever you are in europe and individual countries have no say in it an example of an eu directive was the consumer rights directive which was designed to strengthen the rights of the consumer across europe by removing hidden charges and costs the eu set out a goal and it was up to each country to work towards it in their own way it may sound like a single entity but the european union is actually made up of seven decision-making bodies because we don't have enough bodies already the european council this is focused on the political directions and priorities of the eu heads of government meet summit typically held every quarter to discuss all things e-related and come to some sort of consensus on the direction they want things to go this sounds a little simplistic and i'm certain that it's never this easy next up the european commission once a consensus has been reached by the european council the european commission turns it into a legislative proposal in fact this is the only institution within the eu that can propose legislation next up the council of the european union this council brings together ministers from member states within a specific government department transportation sport or education for example approval is needed by this council before any proposal can enter law next the european parliament the parliament includes 705 elected representatives from the eu members like the council of the eu it has the power to amend approve or reject commission proposals next the court of justice of the european union the role of the court of justice is to ensure the uniform application of eu law and to resolve any disputes that arise between the members next up the european central bank unsurprisingly the european central bank is directly responsible for financial stability within the eu finally the european court of auditors this rather dour-sounding department investigates improper financial management both within countries themselves and stemming from the use of eu funds now before we go on to the european union budget and where it all goes there is the small matter of the euro on the 1st of january 1999 the euro was adopted by 11 countries since then another 8 members have chosen the euro as their national currency the idea was to maximize efficiency promote growth stability and economic integration in europe the other side of that coin pardon the pun is that it has sometimes created a rigid monetary policy which has not allowed individual countries who may be experiencing specific problems not seen in other members to control their own inflation and interest rates this became evident after the 2008 recession when several countries required an eu bailout after their economies went into a tailspin the restrictions placed on greece after their second bailout were seen by many as draconian and led many to wonder whether the eu as a whole would be able to continue in the same way i'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that finance is often a bit of a sticky subject within the eu every seven years a budget is agreed by the member states this is a decision that has to be met unanimously by the leaders of each nation so you can imagine that this often takes some time each country pays into a pot every year some of that goes on administration but much of it goes on projects throughout the eu and also some outside of it but not every country pays the same and not everybody receives the same let's start with contributions if we look at 2018 germany as the largest economy contributed 20.78 of the budget france was second with 15.58 and the uk was third with 11.88 each nation pays the same two percent of its national income hence richer countries pay more than poorer countries on the other side you have countries that are receiving more money than they are putting in in 2018 poland's difference was 11.5 billion euros with hungary on 5 billion euros and greece on 3.2 billion euros now to some that will sound like the most absurd deal you can imagine but the budget doesn't tell the whole story while poorer countries receive more money from the eu richer countries and their strong national economies benefit significantly more by being in the single european market to emphasize this point while germany puts in vastly more than it takes out a study found that single market participation has raised the average german yearly income by a thousand euros if we take a look at the 2014 eu budget which came to 135.5 billion euros almost 40 of it was spent on agriculture and fisheries much of this goes to subsidies for farmers sometimes as much as half of their total income that might sound ridiculous but the truth is that much of modern farming is just not profitable and the eu and indeed many countries around the world choose to support their farmers through additional payments the development of poorer areas is the second largest sector in 2014 54 billion euros 39 percent of the total was spent on it 31 billion euros was spent on regional development which often included roads railways education and health programs 13 billion euros was distributed to the 15 poorest members of the eu and the remaining 8 billion euros was distributed among all of the members research education and innovation received the third largest slice of the pie with 12 billion euros the overall aim is to boost the eu's competitiveness economic growth and job creation now nobody ever likes talking about administration fees it's pretty boring but it's only fair to include it here the 2014 budget set aside 8 billion euros for administration that may sound like an extraordinarily high number but with 55 000 employees and seven eu bodies you can see how the money gets spent pretty quickly [Music] in 2016 the british people voted in a referendum on the nation's involvement with the eu 52 percent of voters chose to leave which began the long drawn-out and still not complete as of recording divorce between britain and the eu ask any british person about this particular time in the country and they are likely to look at you with a sense of weary shell shock it was not a pleasant time as the great debate over whether britain should take a leading role in a stronger europe or cut ties and go it alone became rather nasty the results of the referendum set off alarm bells around europe with some assuming other countries might choose to try and do the same fortunately that hasn't happened if anything the stronger economies germany france italy holland and spain all seem to have doubled down on their commitment to the project and an ideal that began after the hellish bloodshed of world war ii the world in general has been caught up in a wave of nationalism in recent years the kinds which the eu was formed to prevent the union is far from being a perfect organization but when you look at what it has built in just 75 years it is quite extraordinary while britain is seemingly zig-zagging without a clear direction for now the eu relatively speaking remains quite strong as china continues to grow in power and europe becomes sandwiched between two superpowers it makes sense to stick together and build a stronger union there will always be arguments over fishing rights budgets and bureaucracy but it's important to remember what the european union stands for the eu motto is unity in diversity and there is probably nowhere on the planet with such diversity so close together in a land where the most brutal acts of war ever committed took place a bond of cooperation and friendship has emerged out of the ashes of destruction a better europe has risen so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that like button below don't forget to subscribe for more mega projects let me know in the comments if you've got suggestions also please do check out and support this show by checking out our fantastic sponsor ground news link below thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: Megaprojects

Views: 97,256

Rating: 4.7642856 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: hDLowE36ZVQ

Length: 18min 51sec (1131 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020