Basics of European Union - Class X

The Council comprises ministers of the Member States. Its membership changes according to the matter under discussion, for instance it comprises national ministers of agriculture if agriculture is the topic under discussion. Unlike members of the European Commission, who are required to act independently of national governments, members of the Council represent national interest. The Presidency of the Council is held by each Member State, in turn, for six months.

In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize for "Transforming Europe" from a continent of war to a continent of peace."

This reluctance was most in evidence shortly after Britian joined the EU in 1973. Two years later, a referendum was held asking voters whether they wanted to remain in the EU. The great majority of members of the Conservative Party were extremely hostile to the EU during the 1990s.

EU measures, generally comprising secondary legislation, can only be adopted by the EU institutions if the Treaty confers on them the power to legislate in the relevant area. The 'legal base' of an EU measure is the Treaty article conferring that power. The Treaty article forming the legal base also sets out the procedure and the voting requirements in the Council - unanimity, simple majority, or qualified majority - for the adoption of the legislation.

Qualified majority voting operates as a system of weighted voting. The larger the Member State, the more votes it holds. For instance the larger Member States, such as France and Germany, hold 29 votes each and the smallest, Malta, holds only 3 votes. 

The Parliament of European Union gets elected after every 5 years by the citizens of European Union.

There are 15 members did the Union count. Namely; Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

In 2012, the EU won the Nobel Peace Prize of Peace for "Transforming Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace."

Maastricht Treaty established politico-economic union known as European Union which established in the year 1993.

Animal welfare is the major achievement of European Union. To ensure that legislation is enforced through out European Union.

The common Agricultural policy is the one of the lasting polices of the EU. It is focused on increasing agricultural production, providing certainty in food etc.

From its starting to till date EU have 28 countries as its member.

Biotechnology helps in development of genetically modified food which is the scientific research field of EU.

European Systems of Central Bank is the full form of ESPB.

Euro is the single currency which is the second most traded and reserve currency of the world.

European Union with a single currency system had a combined GDP of 18.640 trillion dollars.

The Bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources from land and sea such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms to produce food, materials and energy. European Union is currently working on this.

European Systems of Central Bank is divided into European Central Bank and National Central Bank.

Iceland, Norway and Switzerland are the countries are the member of the European Free Trade Association but not the member of EU.

The European Union operates according to the principles of Conferral which says that it should act only within the limits of the competences conferred on it by the treaties.

The United Kingdom held a referendum in 2016, commonly known as Brexit, in which the electorate voted to leave the European Union.

Greece is the country of European Union which recently under went the economic crises in 2016.

The Council of the European Union referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the 'Council' is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as listed in the Treaty on European Union. It is the other half of the EU legislature (the other legislative body being the European Parliament) and represents the executive governments of the EU's member states. Sometimes it is also referred to as the Council of Ministers.

The euro is the official currency of the European Union. Currently, 19 of 28 member states use the euro; this group of states is known as the eurozone. It is the second most traded currency in the foreign exchange market after the United States dollar. The euro is subdivided into 100 cents.

The European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) is an international organization established by the Treaty of Rome. Its original purpose is of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe, developing nuclear energy and distributing it to its member states while selling the surplus to non-member states.

It is legally distinct from the European Union (EU), but has the same membership, and is governed by many of the EU's institutions but is the only remaining community organization that is independent of the European Union and therefore outside the regulatory control of the European Parliament.

Vatican city,the smallest country of the world is not the member of European Union but it uses its currency Euro.

The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific Council, its governing body consisting of distinguished researchers, and an Executive Agency, in charge of the implementation.

The Court of Auditors (European Court of Auditors, ECA) is the fifth institution of the European Union (EU). It was established in 1975 in Luxembourg. 

Despite its name, the Court has no judicial functions. The primary role of the court is to externally check if the budget of the European Union has been implemented correctly, in that EU funds have been spent legally and with sound management.

To become a member, a country must meet the Copenhagan Criteria defined at the 1993 meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen

Tariffs are taxes that governments levy on imports of goods in order to protect domestic producers and raise revenues for the government. Sometimes tariffs are accompanied by quotas, which set import limits. Sometimes governments are able to restrict trade and protect domestic producers without the use of tariffs. National product safety standards are an example of a non-tariff barrier to trade. For example, by setting national safety standards, a country can effectively bar foreign producers from selling their goods in the country unless they make modifications for that specific national market-usually too costly for a manufacturer to undertake. Non-tariff barriers to trade proliferated during the economic downturn in the 1970s, as national governments sought to protect their domestic producers. 

European Political Co-operation (EPC), the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) are all forms of political co-operation in the EU. This means that they are all programmes that share the goal of co-operation in the 'high politics' of foreign policy, either in the diplomatic or the military realm. These forms of co-operation are intergovernmental, which means that the European Council, and not the Commission, plays a leading role. Most decisions in political co-operation are taken by unanimity, although there are provisions for qualified majority voting in limited circumstances as well as provisions for member states to abstain from voting without blocking the process of political cooperation among other member states.

The European Union was set up as a three-pillar structure, comprising the three Communities (the first pillar), a Common Foreign and Security Policy (the second pillar) and Co-operation on Justice and Home Affairs (the third pillar).

Commissioners are nominated by the President of the Commission and Member States and approved by Heads of State or Government by qualified majority voting followed by approval, as a body, by the European Parliament.

The European Union (EU) has enlarged on seven separate occasions growing from six to nine, then ten, then twelve, then fifteen, then twenty-five and now twenty-seven member states. The first enlargement was in 1973 when Britain, Ireland and Denmark became members. The second enlargement was in 1981 when Greece joined and the third was in 1986 when Spain and Portugal acceded to the Community. The fourth enlargement was that of 1995, which admitted Austria, Finland and Sweden. The fifth enlargement in 2004 was the single biggest expansion of the EU. It brought ten new member states into the EU - eight from Central and Eastern Europe - and two small Mediterranean states - Cyprus and Malta. The sixth enlargement happened in 2007 when Romania and Bulgaria joined and the most recent enlargement was in 2013 when Croatia acceded to the EU.

The European Single Market is a single market which seeks to guarantee the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labour. 

A single market is a market in which most trade barriers have been removed (for goods) with some common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement of the factors of production (capital and labour) and of enterprise and services including the abolition of passport controls. 

The goal is that the movement of capital, labour, goods, and services between the members is as easy as within them. Control of human trafficking is not a feature of the single market.

The constitutional structure of European Union, as established by the Treaty on European Union 1992, is often described as a Europe of 'variable geometry'. It incorporated both supranational elements (decision-making by the Community institutions, acting partly or entirely independently of the Member States, within the first pillar).

European Political Co-operation (EPC) created an intergovernmental framework for coordination on foreign policy issues. This represented 'deepening' of integration and it allowed Member States to develop common positions on the Middle East (which was important as part of Europe's response to the oil crisis caused by OPEC embargoes), and at the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe and for UN General Assembly voting. This co-operation was limited. EPC did not take place within the institutional framework of the European Community; co-operation took place purely on an intergovernmental basis, without the involvement of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice. It was also limited-it did not create a foreign minister position. 

Subsidiarity is a general principle of Community law. This principle is intended to ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen.

The Euro eliminated foreign exchange hurdles encountered by companies doing business across the European border and promoted a free trade policy. This further contributed to a boost in trade among the member nations. Contribution to world peace is not  a direct consequence of adopting a common currency.

EEC stands for European Union For Environmental Policies which is established for environmental issues.

A directive is a form of European Union secondary legislation. Article 288 TFEU describes a directive as 'binding as to the result to be achieved, upon each Member State to which it is addressed, but leaving to the national authorities the choice of form and methods'. This means that directives, which are set out in general terms, must be implemented by Member States through the adoption of detailed measures, usually by national legislation.

Dehaene was nominated to follow Delors. Though the obvious candidate, he was blocked (in favor of Santer) by British Prime Minister, John Major.

The EU legal order embraces a number of general principles of law. These include the principle of proportionality, which requires that actions taken or measures adopted, whether by Member States or the EU institutions, go no further than is necessary to achieve their objective.