GB INTERNATIONAL

GB International



Table of Contents

Task: 13

European Union and its impact on member countries3

Evolution of the European Union3

The Future of the European Union4

European Union directives and its impact on UK domestic and international trade5

Impact on new Member States6

The old Member States and the EU as a whole7

Disabled Workers7

Relocation8

The cost of enlargement8

Impact of anticipated enlargement of the European Union9

Conclusion9

Task: 211

International business environment11

WTO and globalization11

International trade and the emergence of the multinational companies12

Cultural differences and international trade13

Barriers to international trade13

Opportunities for business for the European companies14

Task: 315

Conclusion15

References16

GB International

Task: 1

European Union and its impact on member countries

The European Union (EU) was founded in 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. It began functioning as a political organization in November 1993 and has gradually become one of the key actors in international affairs. In Europe, the EU has clearly become a political unit toward which the small, and great powers tend to look before anything else and toward which political, regional, and economic activities increasingly tend to be geared. (Harrison 2000, Pp. 7-31)The EU currently includes 27 European states and is structured around three key institutions: the European Parliament (with 736 members), the European Commission (with 27 commissioners), and the European Council. It is through these political bodies that EU legislation the driver of integration is debated, passed, and implemented.

Evolution of the European Union

The EU is the most recent stage of the post-World War II European integration process, which was launched in the early 1950s. Over time, European integration has been legitimated by various dominating discourses. Throughout the process, it has been commonly argued that European integration is aimed at maintaining peace in Europe. From the 1950s up to the 1970s, integration was designed not only to restrain the spread of Soviet communism into Western Europe but also to hinder the rise of fascism. The institutional dimension of this process has developed step by step during the past decades. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), founded in 1951, first governed the coal and steel industries of the six founder states.

The enlargement process has continued steadily, if unevenly, during all but 7 years. Originally, European integration involved only six Western European states: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, and Luxemburg. The first round of enlargement took place in 1973, when Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined the EC. This round was followed by the accession of Greece in 1981. After the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 and the consequent establishment of the EU, the expansion, which included Sweden, Finland, and Austria, took effect in 1995. This phase of the EU lasted 9 yrs., after which the eastern expansion of the EU brought in 10 new members in 2004. (Jones 2001, Pp. 2-12)The eastern expansion was finalized in 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU.

The Future of the European Union

All the previous enlargements have put significant pressure on the integration institutions and, therefore, reshaped the nature of the integration. In the history of European integration, territorial expansions have often been preceded by institutional ...