In the nearly three millenniums from the Homer Epics to the V-Day of WWII, Europe, like China, had experienced frequent and bloody wars during most of the period.  Empires rose and fell, with no single nation ever managed to dominant, not least to say unite, the whole continent.

A more remote Europe

Europe was once at the top of world during the peak of its two great ancient civilisations: Greece and Rome.  Ancient Greeks inherited the advancement of Mesopotamia and Nile valley, laid down the foundation of modern science, and spread the Hellenic civilisation southwards and eastwards following the sword of Alexander the Great.  Ancient Romans, on the other hand, advanced northwards and westwards, brought into the mainstream human history today’s Britain, France, Germany, and Spain.

Europe fell into the Dark Ages after the collapse of the Roman Empire, although the Byzantine Empire maintained peace and prosperity for another millennium.  During this period, as we all well know, Europeans were backward people until some centuries after the Renaissance.

European civilisations reached their peak, in terms of its influence in the world, in the dawn of the First World War: at that time, Japan was the only non-European or non-European-origin country on this planet which was truly independent.  Europe then headed for awful wars and recessions, only before it finally collapsed socially, politically, and economically in the biggest war in history.  By that time, hundreds years’ economic progress in the then most advanced continent had been nearly wiped off, and western Europe risked embracing communism when the military threats from eastwards became alarmingly evident.

Formation of the EU

Seeking for peace, security and prosperity was therefore lying deep in the root of the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by the six founding States (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands) on 18 April 1951, concluded by the Treaty of Paris, which declared the birth of a whole new Europe.  It is these core values (peace, security and prosperity) that constitute the objective, rationale and justification of an ever larger and closer union in the past half century; and it is the change of these values, and the change of relative emphasis on these values, that lead to the French and Dutch “no” on the EU Constitution, which seemed to signal a profound change in the direction of the EU from centralisation to decentralisation.  We’ll come back to this topic in some later articles.

A further development came as the Treaty of Rome of 25 March 1957, which created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).  The former community commenced the formation of a “common market” which lies in the centre of today’s EU.  Such common market is based on four fundamental freedoms: freedom of the movement of labour, goods, services, and capital.  Most of us might first be aware of the freedom of the movement of labour from the famous Bosman ruling by the European Court of Justice (EcJ), which illegalised the then normal practice of charging transfer fees even after the contracts between football clubs and players have expired.  Of course, these values are yet to be fully realised: for instance, there is no genuine single market for services, even though services weigh as much as around 70 per cent of the EU GDP.

The Treaty of Maastricht of 7 February 1992 created the EU that we know of today.  It introduced new forms of co-operation between the Member State governments, which conceded some sovereigns over foreign, defence and home affairs policies to the newly created union.  The Single Market is also officially completed.  The EU was further developed on 2 October 1997 when the Treaty of Amsterdam was signed.

Now the EU has 25 formal Member States, with both Romania and Bulgaria waiting for their accession treaties being ratified (which seems unlikely given the current political climate in Europe).  The timing of Member States (except the six founding States) entering the EU is listed below:

1951: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands
1973: Denmark, Ireland and the UK
1981: Greece
1986: Portugal and Spain
1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden
2004: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia

The single currency and monetary union

We cannot afford omitting the single currency (euro) and monetary union.  In 1992 the EU decided to go for economic and monetary union (EMU), involving the introduction of a single European currency managed by a European Central Bank (ECB).  The single currency - the euro - became a reality on 1 January 2002, when euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in twelve Member States (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain).

With the loss of national currency, each Euro-zone country also conceded its control of national monetary policy to the ECB.  This centralisation created considerable economic problems in the Euro-zone as "one size (interest rate) fits all" didn't work out in such an economically diversified area.  Currently the rate is too high for Germany to make economic growth but too low for Spain to curb the ever obvious property bubble.  With the dual “no” vote, one Italian Minister even publicly called for the return of lira, signalling the likelihood of a, although quite remote, break-up of the monetary union, which was unthinkable just months ago.

Of course not all news are bad.  Today’s indication from four new Member States (Cyprus, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia) of their willingness to join the monetary union certainly provided some relief to the pro-euros.

Note:

I could be wrong in this article and I would be pleased if any of you could help correct any mistakes or omissions in it.

For more information please visit the European Union website: http://europa.eu.int

The European Union (EU) has turned to be more and more eye-catching in China in recent years as the mutual relationship develops.  Economically it became China’s biggest trading partner last year, well ahead of the US and Japan (China was its second biggest partner after the US); politically it has vowed to form “strategic partnership” with China, a relationship which is unlikely with the US and unthinkable with Japan.

A political and economic giant with more people and a bigger economy than that of the US and two permanent members of the UN Security Council, the EU is likely to be much closer and more important to China in the coming decades, despites of some incidents such as the recent textile trade disputes and the temporal suspension of lifting the decade-long arm embargo.

So what is the EU, the 25-Member-States-union contributed decisively to the formation of a peaceful and prosperous Europe after its collapse in WWII?  Where does it come from and how does it function? Why does it matter to us?  And, probably more interesting, where it goes after the dual “no” declaring the de facto death of the EU Constitution from France and the Netherlands, two founding States?

Most Chinese, however, appear to know too little about today’s Europe – our impression and knowledge might more correctly reflect the imperialism Europe a century ago.  This is partly due to our focus on the other side of the Pacific.  The complexity of various European organisations and treaties has unfortunately also contributed.

I therefore will try to explore the above topics from now on, and endeavour to organise them in a logical and consistent way.  But I cannot commit myself to any agenda or timetable due to time and ability constraints.

Note:

I could be wrong in this article and I would be pleased if any of you could help correct any mistakes or omissions in it.

For more information please visit the European Union website: http://europa.eu.int