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Introduction

The European Union is an international association of 27 nation states also referred to as member states who cooperate with each other in matters of social, political, and economic domain for the expansion of its union and to maintain security and peace. It also aims to protect its member states from external and internal conflict and to provide justice and equality to its nation-states. The 27 member states comprise of:

  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Cyprus
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Estonia
  • Finland
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Hungary
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Latvia
  • Lithuania
  • Luxembourg
  • Malta
  • Netherlands
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia
  • Spain
  • Sweden

These are the member nations of the EU, earlier the UK was also a part of the European Union but due to economic and trade-related issues, it left the EU in 2020 after the Brexit deal.

History and Evolution of the European Union

After the Second World War, the situation in Europe became very problematic, millions of people died or were injured. There was destruction everywhere and the whole of Europe was divided by hatred, non - cooperation, and conflicts. There was an urgent need for the creation of a system or an organization through which the situation could be handled in Europe and the devastation that Europe faced after the war could be recovered back to the normal phase.

It was necessary for Europe to bring back the lost peace and harmony in the continent. The very first step that Europe took was the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951.

After that, the Treaty of Rome was signed in 1957 for better integration of Europe and the creation of the EEC ( European Economic Community) but Europe was again divided and disintegrated during the period of the Cold War Era. In 1949, NATO came into existence which consisted of 21 EU countries. Another important formation that took place in 1949 for making EU countries more democratic and to protect the basic human rights of its citizens was the creation of the Council of Europe. In 1960, the Assembly of the Coal and Steel Community was replaced by the European Parliament. During the period of 1960-69, the EU saw an increase in its economic growth and development. Various treaties and agreements were signed during this period. The wall of Berlin was also created to differentiate between eastern and western Europe. After the 1970's, Europe saw an expansion of its union through various incidents and the current EU currently plays a very important role in the history of politics and how the changes and decisions of the EU affect the International Relations worldwide.

Structure of the European Union

The European Union consists of seven major decision-making bodies that govern the entire European consortium through its legislative, executive, and judiciary processes of implementing laws and governing the system. The following mentioned bodies govern the European Union:

  1. European Parliament: The main function of the EU Parliament is to legislate, supervise or amend laws. It also decides on the budget proposals and keeps a check on the work of the EU Commission.
  2. European Council: This body of the EU does not pass laws but is the highest decision-making body of the EU, it decides on the security policies and affairs. It works with the EU parliament in making laws and other legislative decisions.
  3. Council of the European Union: It holds the veto power of the EU Commission and is among the one of the legislative bodies that gets to decide, alter or rectify proposals with the aid of the parliament as well.
  4. European Commission: This body of the EU has been vested with the implementation power of the laws and decisions of the Parliament and the Council of the EU.
  5. Court of Justice: The main function of the courts is to keep a check on the implementation of the laws and the EU countries to abide by the laws, it has also been vested with the power to solve controversies between EU nations and national governments.
  6. European Central Bank: The function of the banks is to manage the economic problems and to keep a pace of the growth of the EU with the development of the nation and the monetary welfare of the citizens.
  7. European Court of Auditors: Its function is to oversee the works of the EU finances and look into its management of budgets. It is not vested with any legalized powers.

Purpose of EU

The purpose of the EU is not just restricted to one specific area but it covers all the essential subject matters that promote the development of the nation and the welfare of its citizens. The focus of the EU revolves around health, education, climate change, environment, travel and transport, farming and agriculture. It also aims at a better economy, technological advancements, global affairs, etc.

Research Questions

  1. How European Union play its role in the past in matters of International Relations?
  2. What is the current position of the European Union in relation to global politics?

Limitation of the Study

The basic idea and the knowledge about EU has been mentioned in this paper but owing to time limits everything cannot be covered in one single paper.

Findings

  1. The Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), a unique tool provided by its member states to the European Union for balancing foreign and security policy and functioning as a unified entity on the international scene. The policy covers a wide range of actions to affect the global environment, such as diplomacy, sanctions, and handling crises that arise outside the EU. Positive, negative, or neutral tactics can all be used to exert influence. The EU Treaty very broadly defines the CFSP's area of activity as everything related to foreign and security policy. The purpose of the strategy is to execute the EU's external activity goals, which are outlined in full in Article 21 of the Treaty on the EU16, and to confirm the EU's identity in the world community.
  2. In the present time, the EU has become a great platform for countries to trade with due to its global value in the world. In today’s time, the EU is among one of the largest import and export traders. We will discuss how the EU plays an important role in the following factors which makes it a crucial player in International Relations:

Economic Factors:

The EU strategically plays an important role in world economics through its foreign policies and trade agreements,

It is one of the major powers in the world economy as it possesses a single common market and its huge population and a common currency make it the world’s one of the largest economies. The EU not only is a developed organization in itself but it also helps its neighbouring countries whenever they require financial aid in terms of poverty, healthcare, education, and in other contexts as well. The EU is the largest exporter of both products and services in the world.

During the period of 2020, the EU became one the largest legatees of FDI as it was investing around €6.2 trillion in stocks of FDI, not only it become the largest investor but also it exported 24.2% of all goods and services at the global level. The countries that have become leading trading partners of the EU include Switzerland, the US, the UK, and China.

Political Factors:

The political scenario of the EU is very complex as it involves various other institutions in its decision-making power. Back in the time when the UK decided to leave the EU, the very known Brexit, it had a huge impact on the EU at the global level politically. After many deliberations with the UK, they finally agreed on some terms and agreements. Even though the UK is not a part of the EU, they still have the EU- UK Trade and Cooperation agreement. During the period of COVID-19, the EU played an important role in dealing with the crisis whether it was about vaccines, medicines, or other related benefits. It became politically challenging as the whole world was in crisis at that time and every country or organization was dealing with their own ways. The climate action plan of the EU also had a great role worldwide as it was a great step towards making the continent more carbon neutral and promoting sustainable development by mitigating the use of harmful greenhouse gases.

Social Factors:

The main focus of the EU revolves around political and economic aspects, it does not generally focus on social aspects much but it does have certain legislations and policies for its member states. The social aspects of the EU protect the human rights of its citizens and promote education and culture through various programmes like Erasmus. It also protects its consumers through various legislation.

It's important to note that social policies and practices vary among EU member states, and the EU's role is often to set minimum standards and guidelines while respecting the diversity of national contexts.

Conclusion

The European Union has always played a wide role in world politics or International Relations. Even after the destruction that happened in Europe after World War II, Europe recovered itself from the crisis and became the world's largest single market. It provided the EU countries to travel freely in Europe, provided them with freedom, security, and justice both internally and at external borders as well. It becomes important to study the role of the EU whenever geo-politics is taken into account. The EU expanded its trade and market value globally through its various agreements and treaties. It maintained its place in IR in terms of economic trade, social values, and its cultural heritage.

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