Why Is European Union Effective?

IS EUROPEAN UNION AN EFFECTIVE FOREIGN POLICY ACTOR? : LISBON TREATY AND AFTER.

The European Union remains a relatively recent player at the global level. It is a politico-economic union consisting of twenty eight sovereign member countries. European Union has helped to promote peace, stability and economic prosperity throughout the European continent. The European Union has been built through a series of binding treaties and all the member states of the European Union have continuously tried to adopt common policies on an increasing number of social, economic and political issues. The Union is the latest stage in the process of integration that began after the world war two by the six founding western European countries, in order to foster

Well, there are however a number of factors that make European Union an influential power at global level. Some of these include, EU member states share a customs union; also share a single market in which goods, capital and people move freely; they share a common trade policy, a common agricultural policy. Nineteen European member states share a common currency, the Euro. The details of the above mentioned factors are provided below. Economically, the EU has established a single market throughout its territory; nineteen member states have joined the monetary union known as the Eurozone, thereby using a common currency, the Euro. In terms of EU’s economic strength, it could be said that in 2012, EU had a combined GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of 16.703 trillion international dollars, a twenty percent share of the global gross domestic product (in terms of purchasing power parity) or in other words, 20% of the world’s

He specifically mentioned “Without hard capabilities to back up its diplomacy, Europe will lack its credibility and influence”. Twenty one out of 28 member states of EU are members of NATO. According to the NATO chief, EU lacks in transport planes, air-to-air refueling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and without these European Union won’t be able to strengthen its European Defence and Security Policy which in turn would affect its foreign policy