Four Reasons For Economic Integration

Introduction

After World War II ended on September 2, 1945, there is an urgent need on the economic integration in the European region. There are several things that become the major reasons of economic integration in Europe. The reasons are to repair the damage caused by prolonged war, the need for resources to reconstruct the market economy, and to fortify the influence of the Soviet Union at that time. European Union integration process begins with the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) to removed trade barriers in the coal, iron, and steel. Then, on March 26, 1951 the Treaty of Rome was signed followed by six countries including Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Italy, the Netherlands and West Germany. Afterwards,

European Union is the economic union of over two dozen European countries which seek to create a unified, barrier-free market for products and services throughout the continent, as well as a common currency with a unified authority over that currency. EU member countries now consists of 28 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands , Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United

Despite their ideological differences between the two sides, Russian people trusted the West and believed that Russia’s integration into the Western world was desirable and inevitable. Moreover, EU was pursuing Russia to make a long-term strategy to integrating Russia into Europe. It is called by The Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) that signed in 1994. Through PCA intention of the EU and Russia was to create an economic co-operation of huge scope. Unfortunately, the harmonic relation between Russia and the west become worse by the end of 1990’s. There are some factors that makes the relation become worse. The first one is because the Washington declaration that stated that the Atlantic organization remain open to all European democracies regardless of geography, willing and able to meet the responsibilities of membership, and whose inclusion would increasing the overall security and stability in Europe. It is clearly become a dilemma for Russia. Because it is reject the previous ideological schemes to create a partnership with the EU was accompanied by a geopolitical distancing of Russia from the West, which originated with the NATO enlargement. The NATO enlargement considered as a threat for Russian security and accepted EU enlargement only because the European political space represented to an alternative NATO