The EU: An ever looser union?

摘要

The new enlargement round by the European Union (EU) in May 2004 expanded the membership to 25, coming close to fulfilling the dream of an integrated Europe for the first time since Jean Monnet's vision of a united Europe in the 1950s. The success has however created problems, necessitating the need to evolve and reform itself to better accommodate and respond to the challenges ahead. How the institution should evolve depends largely on its aims and the challenges, both internal and external, facing the organization. This evolution also covers three main aspects, political, social and economic. This essay will however concentrate on the political and social aspects, as economic integration has been largely fulfilled and is dependent on rapid-changing global economic realities that are beyond political engineering. It is also divided into two parts: the first will be a overview of the aims and challenges the Union will be facing and the second, the evolution of the organization with respect to these issues, which hints at the propagation of democracy and subsidiary as the solution.