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The start of the European Union happened after the second world war.  It started with the European Coal and Steel Community and it was established in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris. The members were France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Its purpose was to create a common market and strengthen peace between these countries. (Fontaine, P. 2018  Europe in 12 lessons. pg. 11)

The six countries then decided to set up the European Atomic Community and the European Economic Community. This would create a larger common market and remove custom duties between the six countries.
(Fontaine, P. 2018  Europe in 12 lessons. pg. 11)

Between 1973 to 1979, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom became members and the European Parliament had its first elections. Then in 1991, after the unifications of Germany and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the EEC were in discussions of a new treaty which would bring in the European Council and in December 1991 the Maastricht Treaty was made which created the European Union.
(Fontaine, P. 2018  Europe in 12 lessons. pg. 11)

The Maastricht Treaty did a lot more than just establish the European Union, It also created European Citizenship which allow citizens to travel freely to any EU member state without any restrictions, common and security policies were established such as the single market and CAP and overall a closer cooperation between all  the EU members
(Fontaine, P. 2018  Europe in 12 lessons. pg.13)

bibliography:

- Fontaine, P. 2018. Europe in 12 Lessons. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/2d85274b-0093-4e38-896a-12518d629057 [accessed 10/11/20 14:03]

-EPinUK (2014) A brief history of the European Union https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgnXwrsMBUs

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To join the European Union a country must first fulfil the economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria.

The Copenhagen criteria is the set conditions a country must have before they can become full members of the EU. These are:

·        Political criteria: stability of human law, democracy and human rights

·        Economic criteria: a functioning market economy so that the country can cope with the EUs large market and competition

.   The ability to take all the obligations that an EU country must do
(European Commission. Conditions of membership 2020)

Once a country meets all the conditions of the Copenhagen criteria, The EU governments and ambassadors must go into negotiations with the candidate country to discuss and determine if the country is prepared to join the EU. With such a large market and competition, the EU must lay out the rules and really check that this candidate is strong enough to be apart of this huge single market. There are also the negotiations on new laws that a country must adapt to as the EU has plenty of laws for things such as workers rights and human rights. These negotiations take time and the duration can vary depending on such laws that a candidate country has.

Once the negotiations are being concluded it must be checked by every EU government to make sure that they are happy with the candidate country’s progress. The negotiations are only concluded until:

·        The three main institutions (EU Council, the Commissions and the European Parliament) are all in support

·        The documentation is signed and by the candidate country and all EU members

Once all these steps are passed the candidate country becomes an acceding country which means it will be expected to become a full member on a certain date.

Bibliography:
The European Commission,( 2020) Conditions for membership
https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/policy/conditions-membership_en#:~:text=complying%20with%20all%20the%20EU's,national%20parliament%20or%20by%20referendum.

[assessed 11/11/20 21:18]

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The Common Policies are policies that affect the daily lives of anyone living in the European Union and is implemented by all EU member states. It originally came from the European Economic Community (EEC) that allowed goods, services and peoples to move freely through the original six member states which were Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Later on, this became the Single Market, which is one of the most important polices in the EU.

The Single Market allows EU citizens and goods and services to move freely between the 27 member states of the EU. With a market of over 500 million people, there will of course be huge benefits for any EU citizen. The benefits include:

Free movement: Which allows any EU citizen to work anywhere in the European Union without needing a work permit. Allowing free movement gives EU citizens a bigger chance of finding work and to live permanently or temporarily in any EU state

Reducing costs: Goods can move easily and freely between all EU states, because of the ease of regulations and border controls. The single market also removes customs between EU state members which allows goods and services to move freely without customs and taxation

Developing economies: Allowing international companies to move to any EU state and still gives them full access to the markets of all the European Union member states makes the EU promising for any international company, which grows and strengths the economy. For example, in Ireland, tax is much lower for international companies. This makes Ireland much more promising and the reason they have many international headquarters such as Google and Microsoft.

Increases competition: Ensuring that there is a fair business standard for everyone in the single market helps deal with big competition issues with companies in Europe.

The Single Market is constantly being updated by the European commission especially businesses who work with e-commerce and online goods. The commission is aware that a lot of shopping is being moved to online and want to update the single market to fit in to moving times of the economy, even during the Covid-19 pandemic.

On May 2nd 2018 the European commissions has proposed a new framework for 2021-2027 that is a single market programme that will allocate 4 billion euro to a programme that will help with small and medium sized enterprises. The main points were:

·        Protection knowledge for consumers on dangerous goods and illegal practices within consumer protection

·        Supporting competitiveness in business, particularly small and medium enterprises in the European Union

·        Ensuring fair competition in digital economy and e-commerce

·        Boosting the single market and the cooperation between member states

(Benifei, B 2020 Programmes for Single Market and competitiveness of enterprises)

The agricultural sector or the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) makes sure that the European Union has some of the highest standards of quality, safety and hygiene and ensures that farmers receive fair pricing and support for all their produce. (Department of Foreign Affairs. 2020)

The common agricultural policy is probably one of the most important polices for the Irish people. Before joining the European Union, farming was one of the only things keeping our economy strong.

CAP is really important for the farmers and the rural landscape. CAP protects the Irish countryside and helps with the development of the rural communities. It also helps with farmers directly "The CAP provides farmers with income support through direct payments, makes rules to deal with difficult market situations and promotes national and regional rural development programmes to address difficulties faced by rural communities." (European Commission, 2020)

Having a policy like CAP is huge, not only for Irish farmers, but for Irish consumers. Knowing that the European Union has set up the policy to have such high standard for hygiene and safety makes Irish consumers want to buy locally which is great for the local famers and the market.

The European Commission is also planning on giving 2% more to the agricultural sector every year til 2027. The reason for this, is to promote the next generation of EU by making farming greener and promoting the green path environmental strategy. The budget also wants to help promote young people going into the profession of farming. The reason for this is that less than 7% of farmers in Ireland are under 35. The budget plans on helping smaller to medium farms and to be more flexible on inheritance and tax. (European Commission, 2020. Key EU policies for Ireland)

As shown CAP gives a huge amount of support and investment into Irish farming, making the market bigger for the farming communities and supporting them with better pay and support for their produce.

Bibliography:
Department of Foreign Affairs 2020. Common policies https://www.dfa.ie/our-role-policies/ireland-in-the-eu/common-policies/ [accessed 11/11/20 16:22]

European Commission, 2020. Key EU Policies for Ireland> Agriculture https://ec.europa.eu/ireland/news/key-eu-policy-areas/agriculture_en [accessed 29/11/20]

Benifei, B. 2018. Programmes for Single Market and competitiveness of enterprises https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-new-boost-for-jobs-growth-and-investment/file-mff-programme-for-single-market-and-competitiveness-of-enterprises [accessed 30/11/20 16:44]

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The European Parliament is one of three legislative branches of the European Union and one of seven institutions. It is a democratic assembly of 751 members that are once every 5 years by voters of all 28 European member countries. (Europa. EU 2020 ABC of the European Parliament) The parliament headquarters is in Strasbourg France and has its administrative office in Luxembourg.

The MEPs are organised in their political party group, with members from all 28 European countries. There are 8 political groups in the European Parliament.

·        The EPP (European Peoples Party)

·        The S&D (Progressive Alliance of and Democratic in the European Parliament)

·        THE ECR (European Conservatives and Reformatives)

·        The ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe)

·        The Greens/EFA (Group of Greens/ European Free Alliance)

·        The GUE/NGL (European United Left/ Nordic Green Left)

·        The EFDP (Europe of Freedom and Direct Groups)

·        There is also a section called the NI (Non-attached members)

(Europa. EU 2020 ABC of the European Parliament)

The European passes laws with the Council of the EU (not to be confused with the European Council) based on the proposal of the European Commission, They decide on the EU budget and also has a huge role on deciding if a candidate country should be apart of the European Union as it is one of the three major institutions, the other being the European council and the European Commission.

The European Parliament has helped in some major roles in European History. One of them being the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. The Parliament was vital for preparing for a reunification and its 16 million new citizens “the European Parliament played an important role and increased its involvement. For several months, it provided a forum for European leaders that were responsible for preparing German unification.” (Europa 2020)

Bibliography

- Delepine L. (2020) Berlin Wall, Archive exhibition booklet. https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/exhibition-for-30th-anniversary-of-german-reunification_16502_pk?EPV_EDITED_VIDEOS=true?EPV_REPLAY=true&EPV_PHOTO=true&EPV_AUDIO=false [accessed 20/11/20 17:03]

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The European Council is probably the most shown on media and news networks. The European council brings together all the presidents and prime ministers from every EU state and also the president of the European commission and the president of the central bank. These meetings can not make laws, but rather conclude on things together. They discuss general topics and set priorities. They also set goals for the European Union such as, Jobs, environmental issues and other issues relating to the time they meet together. The council meet up twice every six months and are usually held in Brussels. Negotiations usually last 2 days (Citizen information. European council 2020)

Bibliography
-Citizen Information. 2020. European Council https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/government_in_ireland/european_government/eu_institutions/european_council.html
[accessed 11/11/20 15;43]

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The European social charter is a treaty that guarantees social and economic rights . It is a counterpart to the European Convention on Human Rights. (Verhaeghe, P. 2016. European Social Charter: the tool to achieve social justice)

- Protection of migrant workers:

This must protect migrants and let them work in clean and safe environments as there can be a lot of discriminations .

In a report done by the FRA(European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights) 237 migrant workers claimed that they never had any inspection done in their work place " workers are at high risk of severe labour exploitation" (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2018)
Migrant workers also experienced employers trying to cover up violations that broke workers laws and human rights laws.

Laws that protect migrant workers are so important because of that fact they are more likely to be overworked, discriminated against and have to experience working in dangerous conditions.

-Protection of children and young people:

This article protects the youth in many different ways, such as young people in the workplace, Children who are victims to human trafficking and guardianship.

Another report done by the FRA is how guardianship is handled in each EU state. One of the key findings was how EU states failed to give a child who was a victim to human trafficking suitable protection and guardianship.  In the report they show a table of what national institutions would be assigned to give guardianship if a child has no natural person to care for them. Most EU states are shown to have a national child care service, but the only exception would be former EU state, The UK where it states " No guardianship system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Local authorities take children into care but do not exercise legal representation" (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 2018)

Bibliography:

-Verhaeghe, P. (2016) European Social Charter: the tool to achieve social justice

https://www.caritas.eu/european-social-charter-the-tool-to-achieve-social-justice/#:~:text=The%20European%20Social%20Charter%20guarantees,well%20as%20protection%20against%20poverty
[accessed 24/11/20 15:29]

-European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2018) Protecting Migrant  workers exploitations in the EU. Pg.7

https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2018/protecting-migrant-workers-exploitation-eu-boosting-workplace-inspections [accessed 24/11/20 17:47]

-European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2018) Guardianship systems for children deprived of parental care in the European Union https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2018/guardianship-systems-children-deprived-parental-care-european-union-summary [accessed 24/11/20 19:33]