Professional Documents
Culture Documents
European Union Creation and Brexit by Farhan Ahmed Visiting Faculty at Bahria University
European Union Creation and Brexit by Farhan Ahmed Visiting Faculty at Bahria University
By Farhan Ahmed
Visiting Faculty at Bahria University
What is the European Union
• The European Union is a unique economic and
political partnership between 27 European
countries.
• It has delivered half a century of peace, stability, and
prosperity, helped raise living standards, launched a
single European currency, and is progressively
building a single Europe-wide market in which
people, goods, services, and capital move among
Member States as freely as within one country.
European Union Symbols
• The European flag: The 12 stars in a circle symbolize the
ideals of unity, solidarity and harmony among the peoples
of Europe.
• The European anthem: The melody used to symbolize the
EU comes from the Ninth Symphony composed in 1823 by
Ludwig Van Beethoven.
• Europe Day: The ideas behind the European Union were
first put forward on 9 May 1950 by French foreign minister
Robert Schuman. This is why 9th May is celebrated as a key
date for the EU.
• The EU motto: "United in diversity"
Why the European Union
• The EU’s mission in the 21st century is to:
• maintain and build on the peace established between its
member states;
• Bring European countries together in practical
cooperation;
• Ensure that European citizens can live in security;
• Promote economic and social solidarity;
• Preserve European identity and diversity in a globalised
world;
• Promulgate the values that Europeans share.
European Union Creation
• The story began at the end of World War II as
the European Continent lies devastated leaving
US and USSR as the two major world powers.
• The growing rivalry was the beginning of the
cold war.
• The USSR controlled the eastern Europe.
• The western Europe looked to the US for
reconstruction aid.
European Union Creation
• The old continent was found divided by the iron
curtain.
• In the west the idea of European Unity began to
take hold.
• On the 9th of May 1950 France via its foreign
minister Schuman proposed a Franco-German
reconciliation.
• They placed under a common high authority the
production of coal and steel.
The Origins of the EU
• Making war unthinkable among Europeans
• Together managing main materials used in
war: coal and steel
• Coal and Steel were the main wealth of
industrialized countries which was also
needed for the manufacturing of weapons.
• The aim is to boost the peace and maintain
security.
Founders
• New ideas for lasting peace and prosperity…
• Konrad Adenauer
• Robert Schuman
• Winston Churchill
• Alcide De Gasperi
• Jean Monnet
Creation of European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC)
• The European Coal and Steel Community
(ECSC) was set up by the six founding
members.
• Portugal
• Spain
• Greece
• Cyprus
Migration Crisis
• In 2013 Croatia joined the European Union.
• No Deal
• Harder Brexit
• Soft Brexit
• Chequers Deal
Brexit Issues
• United Kingdom becomes first country to leave
European Union
• United Kingdom leaves EU after 47 years of
membership
• It took more than 3 years of political chaos and
angry protests in UK to leave EU
• The UK stopped being a member of
the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31
January 2020
No Deal
• Britain could immediately crash out of EU with
no transition period
• Britain will use Standard International Trading
Rules
• British laws will be different from EU ones
• Tariffs and Border Checks will potentially kick
in right away
Harder Brexit
• Currently UK is the part of EU political system
• The harder the Brexit the more of these things
will be left by UK
• UK can make its own rules and regulations and
it could make trade deals with other countries
• Hard Brexit can affect the foreign trade
because of the tariff
Softer Brexit
• This option will see much more alignment
between the UK and EU
• The softer the Brexit the few things will
change
• But if it was a really soft Brexit, Britain could
stay in single market and custom’s union
• For British businesses this would probably
have the opposite effect to a hard Brexit
Chequers Deal