European Business: What Advantages Exist For The European Union In Extending Its Membership?

What advantages exist for the European union in extending its membership?
3,266 word essay for European Business module. 

The European Union (EU) is a transnational political, economic and social union between
27 sovereign nations within the continent of Europe. The vision for the EU was borne out
of a desire for more co-operation between European nations following the tragedies of two
world wars centred on Europe during the early 20th century.

The first precedent for the EU was set by the European coal and steel community (ECSC)
created by the treaty of Paris on 18th April 1951 by six European countries – Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands (A peaceful Europe – the
beginnings of cooperation, Europa). These same six nations then went on to create a
further economic pact with the treaty of Rome on 25th March 1957- the European
economic community (EEC), known by some as the “common market”.

The original six nations of the EEC were then joined by Denmark, Ireland and the United
Kingdom (UK) in 1973 (A growing community, Europa), Greece in 1981 and Spain and
Portugal in 1986 (the changing face of Europe, Europa). In 1992 existing members of the
ECC signed the Maatrisct treaty which among other elements formally changed the name
of the ECC to the European union (EU). In 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the
newly named EU (Europe without frontiers, Europa). This was followed in 2004 by a
further 10 new member states - Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, and then in 2007 by Bulgaria and
Romania to take the number of EU member states to its current 27. (A decade of further
expansion, Europa)

Current candidates to join the EU include the recognised candidates of Iceland,
Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey ; Albania and Serbia who have submitted applications
but are not yet recognised as official candidates and Croatia (European Commission,
2012) . In my opinion other potential candidates include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway,
Switzerland, Belarus, Liechtenstein, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. Despite their
political differences with the EU their geographical proximity to current EU members
makes them realistic candidates in future.

Another possible future EU member is Russia. Russia has many advantages to offer the
EU and although it would be politically difficult to integrate Russia with the EU at the
moment it is possible it may enter the EU in future. Former Italian prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi remarked on the potential of Russia joining the EU -

"I consider Russia to be a Western country and my plan is for the Russian
Federation to be able to become a member of the European Union in the coming
years," ...[adding] “ I want to go further. I have had this vision for years,"
(Google News, 2008)

However, Russia is known to currently disagree with Burlesconi's statement. (Panarmenia
Net, 2008)

Another interesting possible future EU member is Israel. Although geographically
considered within the middle east Israel is significantly European in both culture and
religion and has many close political ties with EU countries and may seek EU membership
to improve its national faced with security threats from countries such as Iran.
It is also possible that the four recognised “micro states” within Europe of Andorra,
Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City may also become EU members in future.
Many advantages exist in for the EU in extending its membership beyond 27 nations. A
primary advantage is economic. In 2010 the EU countries had a combined gross domestic
product (GDP) of $14.9 trillion – more than any single nation on earth. This includes the
United States ($14.72 trillion), China ($9.872 trillion), Japan ($4.338 trillion) and India
($4.046 trillion), (Nation Master, 2011). Therefore, an obvious advantage of the EU
extending its membership is that it will increase its overall GDP. I would argue that this
increase in economic power (GDP) by the EU would lead to more political power and
presence on the world stage and a larger say for the EU in world wide decisions as its will
control a larger percentage of the world's economy.

The most likely candidate countries to become EU members have respective GDP's of –
Turkey ($0.958 trillion), Croatia ($0.078 trillion), Macedonia ($0.019 trillion) and Iceland
($0.011 trillion), (Nation Master, 2011). It is clear that if several of these nations particularly
Turkey were to join the EU then it would push EU GDP significantly ahead of its closest
challenger the United States.

Another economic advantage of increased EU membership is economic diversification in
the EU. In March 2011 at a speech in Coventry UK prime minister David Cameron set out
his plan to “re balance” Britain's economy from one too “reliant on government spending,
on housing and finance “ to one “more reliant on manufacturing and investment." (BBC
News, 2011). In my opinion what David Cameron thinks is good for the UK can also be
good for the EU.

By increasing EU member states the EU has the opportunity to incorporate growing
economies more reliant on manufacturing (similar to that of recent EU member Poland) to
counterbalance western European economies more reliant on the service sector,
effectively re balancing the economy of the EU. In my opinion, it is better to have a diverse
range of economies within the EU so when one sector (and the economies more reliant on
it) is doing poorly other sectors and better performing economies can compensate for it,
thus balancing the EU economy overall and providing more economically stability.
Given the events of the “Arab Spring” and the general instability of the middle east region.
(The Guardian, 2012). Further geographical expansion by the EU toward the middle east
by granting membership to countries such as Turkey, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in my
opinion could be a potential advantage to the EU.

Particularly Turkey (who is an currently an official EU membership candidate) could
provide great advantages as it borders both Syria and Iran – two unstable countries which
threaten the EU as a whole. Syria, for example is close enough to Turkey for the EU to
potentially offer aid and camps for refugees (much of which Turkey is already doing) and
establish good diplomatic relations as neighbours with a potentially new democratic
government.

Similarly, Iran also borders Turkey, therefore Turkey becoming an EU member offers the
opportunity to build better diplomatic relations with Iran as a neighbour. Potentially, Turkey
could be also be used as a base for future militarily intervention by the EU in Iran or other
middle eastern countries. With the additional possibility of Israel joining the EU is clear in
my view that extending the EU toward the middle east gives the EU an opportunity to
achieve stability in the region and improve relations. Although it may seem currently
unlikely I think that extending EU membership to Turkey gives the EU the great advantage
of beginning the process of achieving peace between Europe and the Middle East some
time in the future.

A further advantage of increasing EU membership is increasing the size of the labour
market within the EU. The EU currently allows for the free movement of people between
many European countries under the “Schengen area” (Europa, 2009) allowing workers to
move fairly freely within the EU. Increasing EU membership could potentially allow EU
workers to work in a greater number of European countries giving them greater experience
of different cultures and working practices. EU businesses will also benefit from increased
EU membership with a greater diversity of potential employees, possibly gaining from the
different experiences of these employees.

Another advantage of the EU extending its membership is that it will move the union closer
to world “superpower” status or in my opinion cement the EU's place as a world
superpower. I would define a world superpower as a country or group of countries with
highly significant economic, political, social, technological, religious and environmental
power, enough to make key decisions about the future of the entire planet, or significantly
affect any of the factors listed above on a world wide scale.

I would argue that apart from the EU the United States is the only other world superpower
although countries including China, Japan, Russia, India, Brazil, Australia, Mexico,
Argentina and Canada already play a key role in world wide decision making and have the
potential to become future superpowers.

By increasing its membership the EU would also improve its influence on the United
Nations (UN) and the UN security council of which two EU members have permanent
seats – Britain and France. It is also important to note that Russia (a possible future EU
member) has the 3rd of 5 permanent security council seats, so if it ever were to become a
member the EU would have a majority of permanent UN security council seats.
Russia itself offers many potential advantages to the EU were it to become a member.
Geographically it borders China and is close to the US state of Alaska – both countries
important both politically and economically to the EU. By becoming a member the EU as a
whole has the opportunity to improve links with both China and the United States.
Russia also contains many natural resources such as Oil and Gas that the EU is heavily
dependant on, extending EU membership to Russia is likely to improve energy security
across the EU. Russia also has one of the world's biggest space programs (together with
the EU, United States and China) by extending membership to Russia the EU could merge
its own space program with Russia creating a bigger and better program with the
opportunity of more space exploration, potentially befitting the whole region.

Another advantage of extending the EU is the educational opportunities available. The EU
currently offers many transnational educational opportunities to its member nations for all
types of students. Programmes include – Leonardo Da Vinci (vocational training for young
apprentices and trainees, links training institutions to businesses), Grundtvig (transnational
adult education programmes), Comenius (transnational pupil exchanges at secondary
school level, together with “e-twinning” transnational IT links between schools), and
perhaps most impressively Erasmus. (Education, Training, Youth, Europa).
Erasmus described as “the EU's flagship education and training programme” (European
Commission, 2010) has had a participation of 2.2 million students since its beginnings in
1987. It involves over 4,000 higher education institutions in 33 different countries (EU and
non EU).

In my opinion extending EU membership would allow for many more educational
opportunities for EU students, opening up new educational institutions and allowing for the
easy movement of students between more countries across Europe. This would benefit
the EU as a whole giving EU students (The EU's future workforce) more opportunities to
experience different cultures and working practices across more countries giving them a
greater depth of experience.

Another advantage for the EU of extending its membership is the opportunity to increase
the EU annual and future budgets and the impact these budgets have on the programs
they support. In 2007 the EU spent 114bn (billion) euros in total (EU Budget, BBC News),
over 47bn euros of this came from the top four contributing countries – France, Spain,
Germany and Italy. 9bn euros came from other and non EU contributors, the majority of
this going towards foreign aid.

In my opinion, if the EU were to extend its membership then the overall budget could
increase significantly, particularly with the opportunity of significantly sized European
economies such as Turkey, Ukraine, Norway, Switzerland and even Russia. These
potential members would be expected to contribute significantly to the EU budget upon
their entry by other EU members, perhaps in the case of Russia even as much as the top
four contributing countries (France, Spain, Germany, Italy). Any increase in the EU's
overall budget would likely improve the programs it supports and may also enable the EU
to start new ones, funding new areas of government.

In 2007 the EU budget was divided as follows – Agriculture received 47% (53.5 bn euros),
Regional Aid 32% (37.974 bn euros), Foreign Aid 7.292bn, Administration 6.806bn,
Research and Innovation 4.059bn, Education 959 million euros, Crime and border control
212 million euros and other 4.151bn euros (EU Budget, BBC News).
Agriculture then takes the largest proportion of the EU budget at 53.5bn euros. Agriculture
has traditionally been a high area of spending by the EU, much of this spending comes
from EU farm policy – known by many as the “common agricultural policy” (CAP). CAP
came around about 50 years ago; with the realistic present and future prospect of world
food shortages due to an ever rising world population and the effects of two world wars a
key focus of European countries was on providing enough food for its people. Thus CAP
policy focused on “subsidising production and supporting prices for farmers by buying up
surpluses.” (Agriculture, Europa, 2012) Today the policy is somewhat different but still
focuses on farm subsidies, however, the emphasis is more toward quality of food produced
that quantity.

Europa describes the EU's role toward agricultural policy - “Today, EU policy aims to
enable producers of all forms of food – whether cereals, meat, dairy, fruit, vegetables or
wine – to:

• produce sufficient quantities of safe, high-quality food for European consumers

• make a full contribution to diversified economic development in rural areas

• meet very high standards of environmental care and animal welfare.”
(Agriculture, Europa, 2012)

EU agricultural policy also supports “innovation in farming and food processing” , “financial
safety nets to support farmers” including relief for one off emergencies such as natural
disasters (Agriculture, Europa, 2012). In my opinion EU agricultural policy would benefit
greatly from extending EU membership. Not only would the agricultural budget potentially
increase but farmers from all over the EU would have the opportunity to benefit from a
greater diversity of agricultural regions from regions as diverse as Iceland and Norway to
Turkey and Montenegro giving farmers across the region the opportunity to educate each
other about food production, including the potential to share new technologies and
innovative methods of production.

Increasing EU membership would also provide the opportunity to unite more agricultural
regions across Europe, so instead of competing against each other they were all working
together toward giving Europe's people more sustainable food supplies. It may also give
Europe's consumers the opportunity to sample a more diverse range of foods from across
the region at more affordable prices.

Another advantage of extending EU membership is that it could significantly improve the
EU policy area of humanitarian aid. The EU is already considered “the world's leading
provider of humanitarian aid.... It aims to help prepare for and deal urgently with the crises
which seriously affect populations outside the Union, whether these be natural disasters,
disasters caused by human activity, or structural crises.” This includes - “emergency aid,
food aid, and aid for refugees and displaced persons.” (Humanitarian Aid, Europa).
The EU works with the United Nations and NGO's (non-governmental organisations) to
provide this vital service to people in crisis. By extending EU membership not only would
the EU's aid budget increase but it would also be able to coordinate more government's
and charities to help in the event of humanitarian crisis. It would also cover a larger
geographical area giving it the possibility of be able to distribute aid more quickly. For
example, Turkey's proximity to Syria. If Turkey was an EU member the EU would have
been able to get involved more directly with Syrian humanitarian crisis.

Arguably, one of the biggest challenges facing humanity is climate change and what
actions to take regarding it. By extending membership I believe the EU will have the
advantage of more political and economic power by having more member nations and
therefore more negotiating power on climate change issues. By extending membership the
EU would have more influence in world wide climate change decisions and debate, able to
put its views across on the issue with more power to influence other nations.
In fact two of the last four annual climate change summits have taken place within the EU.
In 2008 in Poznan, Poland (United Nations, 2008) and in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark
(United Nations, 2009). In my opinion, the more members the EU have the more it will be
able to put its view across on climate change, the EU has the potential to be a great and
respected advocate for action on climate change by extending membership and this can
only be an advantage in my view.

Similarly by extending membership the EU will have more political and economic power to
improve human rights around the world. The EU itself has a “charter of fundamental rights”
protecting rights to “human dignity, the right to life... the prohibition of slavery and torture,
the right to marry and found a family, freedom of thought, conscience and religion,
freedom of expression... equality before the law... equality between men and women...the
right to vote”...and the right to a fair trial amongst other rights. (Charter of Fundamental
Rights, Europa, 2010).

By extending membership the EU could not only advance these rights across other
European countries but world wide. For example Turkey with its proximity to the middle
east may be able to better advocate the EU's view on human rights in that region, for
example, for more rights for women, religious minorities and other minorities such as
lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

Extending membership also gives the EU the opportunity to improve science and
technology across the EU. By having a more diverse range of scientists who are able to
share ideas by moving freely between member countries and educational institutions, I
believe this will be a great advantage to the EU, benefiting its citizens by opening up the
possibility of new scientific discoveries and improving science across the union.
An additional advantage of extending EU membership is that it is likely that a greater and
more diverse range of languages will be spoken as well as a greater and more diverse
range of cultures. Students may be encouraged to learn about these additional languages
and cultures giving them a greater appreciation of Europe as a whole, it may also improve
diplomatic relations between the EU and the rest of the world.

With the possible addition of Turkey for example, its more middle eastern type culture in
some regions may benefit the EU when negotiating with middle eastern countries as
Turkish cultural influence may help the EU in understanding middle eastern augments and
points of view better. Similarly, middle eastern countries may be re assured to see Turkish
cultural influence within the EU when negotiating with the EU, as it is perhaps not as
“alien” to them as other European cultures.

Finally, the Lisbon Treaty set up the first EU sports policy (Sports, Europa, 2012). In my
opinion, extending EU membership could improve sports across the union not by
increasing sports funding but also by uniting more sports organisations across country's
and allowing sports players and coaches more opportunities to share ideas. Europe is
already well renowned for holding major sporting events for example this year the Olympic
games is being held within an EU member country (United Kingdom) together with the
successful quadrennial European football championships in Poland and Ukraine (Poland
being an EU member). By increasing EU membership I believe the EU has the potential to
improve its reputation even more as a world wide sports leader.

In conclusion there are many potential candidates to become EU members and many
advantages in the EU extending its membership from increased worldwide economic and
political power to potentially greater influence on climate change policy, the opportunity to
advance human rights across world, improve cultural relations, food, agriculture, science
and even sport. It is clear that there are many advantages in extending EU membership.

3, 266 words

Bibliography

Euro area and EU27 government deficit at 6.0% and 6.4% of GDP respectively, (2011)
eurostat http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/2-26042011-AP/EN/2-26042011-
AP-EN.PDF [26th April 2011]
GDP Statistics (2011) Nation Master http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp economy-
gdp-nomina l

A peaceful Europe – the beginnings of cooperation, Europa http://europa.eu/about-eu/euhistory/
1945-1959/index_en.htm
A growing community, Europa http://europa.eu/about-eu/euhistory/
1970-1979/index_en.htm

Nugent, N. (2010) The Government and Politics of the European Union, 7th ed, Palgrave
Macmillan.

The Erasmus Programme (2010) European Commission
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-p rogramme/doc80_en.htm
[8th June 2010]

Education, Training, Youth, Europa http://europa.eu/pol/educ/index_en.htm
the changing face of Europe – the fall of the Berlin wall, Europa http://europa.eu/about-eu/
eu-history/1980-1989/index_en.htm

Europe without frontiers, Europa http://europa.eu/about-eu/euhistory/
1990-1999/index_en.htm

Brimmer, E. Frohlich, S. (2005) The Strategic Implications of EU enlargement, 1st ed,
Centre for Transatlantic Relations: Johns Hopkins University.

The schengen area and co operation, (2009), Europa
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_pers
ons_asylum_immigration/l33020_en.htm
[3rd August 2009]

Economic and monetary affairs (2012) Europa http://europa.eu/pol/emu/index_en.htm
[7th February 2012]

A decade of further expansion, Europa http://europa.eu/about-eu/euhistory/
2000_today/index_en.htm
Enlargement (2012) European Commission http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/candidatecountries/
index_en.htm
[14th February 2012]

Cameron urges economy “rebalance” to restore growth, (2011) BBC News
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12665344
[7th March 2011]

Berlusconi says he wants Russia to join the EU, (2008) Google News
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g2INfqbAE6C9LjlXFkwDrF1l8zbw
[October 15th 2008]

Russia not planning to join EU, (2008) Panarmenia Net
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/world/news/27275/
[October 17th 2008]

Arab Spring, (2012) The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactivetimeline
[5th January 2012]

Quickly, Quietly the EU gains superpower status, (2005) The Oxford Press
http://www.oxfordpress.com/hp/content/shared/news/world/stories/05/08_EUROPE_SUPE
RPOWER.html
[6th May 2005]

EU Budget, BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8036096.stm
Agriculture, (2012), Europa. http://europa.eu/pol/agr/index_en.htm
[7th January 2012]

Poznan Climate Change Conference, (2008), United Nations.
http://unfccc.int/meetings/poznan_dec_2008/meeting/6314.php

Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, (2009), United Nations.
http://unfccc.int/meetings/copenhagen_dec_2009/meeting/6295.php

Charter of Fundamental Rights, (2010), Europa.
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/human_rights/fundamental_rights_within_europea
n_union/l33501_en.htm
[6th May 2010]

Sport, (2012), Europa. http://europa.eu/pol/spo/index_en.htm [17th February 2012]
Humanitarian Aid, Europa.
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/humanitarian_aid/index_en.htm

Q & A : EU Enlargement, (2007), BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2266385.stm
[1st January 2007]