Economic arguments for further enlargement of the EU Essay

Economic arguments for further enlargement of the EU - Essay Example The paper tells that the enlargement of the EU is one of the most debated topics presented to relevant councils. When the European Union was first formed in 1952 there were only six member countries. Today, there are 27 member countries in the European Union, and this number is scheduled to be increased in 2013. The European Union has been inducting newer countries into its council on an irregular basis since 1952, after subjecting applicant countries through a long process requiring pre-accession treaties, assessment conditions and a set of criteria – the Copenhagen criteria – that must be met before membership is granted. The process can take a number of years and after the induction of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, Croatia is set to become a member of the EU in June 2013. Other countries like Turkey, Iceland, and the Western Balkans are in accession negotiations to follow suit. Membership generally offers great benefits to member countries, particularly those struggl ing to make the move from being developing nations to being developed ones. The European Union provides an economic and political support that smaller countries, or at least countries with smaller economies, can use to enhance their global standing, both within and outside Europe. But what is the impact that this expansion has, whether on the currently existing members of the European Union, the European Union as a whole, or even, in fact, Europe in general? Surely there must be certain economic and political impact such a membership must have, and economic advantage is generally gained at the expense of another party’s disadvantage. While that may be true, and in fact is to a certain point, it is not quite as limited as that. The results of many surveys, reports, and inquests have shown that the general perception among Europe’s public seems to be that membership offers great benefits to newer members while offering little to no benefit to older members. This percepti on might not be in the majority – with statistics varying from country to country – there is no doubt that it is a sizable portion of the public, any country or sample considered. Evidence supporting this matter is given further in the report, built generally upon information provided by the British Parliament in 2006. As negative as general perception might be, however, expansion has always shown to result in positive economic and political impact. This is true of any series of expansion, but this report will particularly center its focus on countries inducted in 2004, as they have had sufficient time to determine the effect of membership on their economy, as well as the impact of their membership on the European Union members in general. In fact, not only are the arguments brought forth against expansion generally baseless, with little evidence to support their claim, inverse evidence shows that economic arguments supporting the expansion of the European Union are la rgely misunderstood, or otherwise overlooked.