Lição 11: EU Terminology

The European Union is a group of 25 countries whose governments work together. It's a bit like a club. To join you have to agree to follow the rules and in return you get certain benefits. Each country has to pay money to be a member. They mostly do this through taxes. The EU uses the money to change the way people live and do business in Europe. Countries join because they think that they will benefit from the changes the EU makes. These are the five top aims of the EU:

1. Promote economic and social progress through helping people to earn enough money and be treated fairly.
2. Speak for the European Union on the international scene.
3. Introduce European citizenship. A frontier-free area has been created within which people, goods, services and money can all move around freely.
4. Develop Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice which will help Europeans to live in safety, without the threat of war.
5. Maintain and build on EU law with legislation that protects people's rights in the member countries.

People used to dream of a united Europe living in peace and friendship. After the Second World War, their dream started to become reality. It began with the creation of the Coal and Steel Community, then the European Economic Community and the formation of a "common market". The EEC used to be six members and then other countries joined. In 1967 the three European communities - ECSC, EURATOM, EEC - joined together to form a single Commission and a single Council of Ministers as well as the European Parliament. The Treaty of Maastricht (1992) introduced new forms of co-operation and created the European Union (EU). Passport and customs checks were abolished at most of the EU's internal borders and this offered greater mobility for EU citizens. On 1 January 2002 the Euro replaced national currencies in twelve of the 15 countries of the European Union. With enlargement ten more countries in eastern and southern Europe joined the EU in 2004.

The political vision of the EU's founding fathers was to build a solidly united Europe. To achieve a European dimension, measures implementing solidarity and integration have been created in very practical areas such as the single market, agricultural policies, competition, free movement of goods, capital and services, technical standards and policies that protect the environment. Similarly, people living in Europe's outlying regions benefit from structural funds. Every citizen of the Union has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal and European parliamentary elections in the EU country where he or she is living. Their fundamental rights include gender equality and non-discrimination of nationality, race, religion, age, and sexual orientation. However a sense of being European and belonging must arise from shared cultural awareness.

The political vision of the EU's founding fathers was to build a solidly united Europe. To achieve a European dimension, measures implementing solidarity and integration have been created in very practical areas such as the single market, agricultural policies, competition, free movement of goods, capital and services, technical standards and policies that protect the environment.

Similarly, people living in Europe's outlying regions benefit from structural funds. Every citizen of the Union has the right to vote and to stand as a candidate at municipal and European parliamentary elections in the EU country where he or she is living. Their fundamental rights include gender equality and non-discrimination of nationality, race, religion, age, and sexual orientation. However a sense of being European and belonging must arise from shared cultural awareness.