Курсовая работа: The UK as a member of the EU

· Develop the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), Britain did not join this until 1990

· Increase the EEC’s control on environmental issues and other areas of national governments.

· Develop a free internal market for goods, labour and capital by 1992. This restricted the ability of individual member states to control these areas of activity.

· Increase the role of the European Parliament, thereby decreasing the role of individual national parliaments. However, UK citizens would elect MEP’s to sit in the European Parliament at Strasbourg.

The next six years were spent agreeing nearly 300 directives to create the Single Market with Jacques Delors and Arthur Cockfield (the British Commissioner) keeping Ministers hard at work. The consequences have been wholly beneficial economically, with the elimination of barriers to trade and the scrapping of restrictions on millions of firms. It has, however, had some negative side effects, as the regulations essential to create a real single market provided ammunition to those hostile to the EU, particularly in the UK.

One great internal development of the 1990s was the achievement of EMU. This had many things to be said for it. A single market without a single currency would always have been subject to attack. To be able to travel Europe-wide without changing your money is a huge advantage. But the move to EMU (European Monetary Unification) was more a political than an economic decision and the jury is still out on the question of whether all Eurozone countries will be able to live with its "one size fits all" single short-term interest rate. [2, p.156-164]

1.4 The Treaty of Maastricht

7 February 1992 the Treaty on European Union (TEU) is signed in Maastricht, entered into force on 1 November 1993.

The Maastricht Treaty based on three ‘pillars’:

1 pillar I – the EC;

2 pillar II – new intergovernmental arrangements for a CFSP;

3 Pillar III – increased co-operation on justice and home affairs.

The main provisions of the Treaty were:

· The principle of subsiduarity was embodied.

The Treaty also enshrined the principle of subsidiarity, under which action in areas where the EC and Member States share competence should be taken at European level only if objectives cannot be achieved by Member States acting alone, and can be better achieved by the EC.

· Concept of European citizenship introduced, allowing citizens in the EU to vote in European Parliament and local elections in whichever member state they live.

It introduced the concept of EU citizenship as a supplement to national citizenship.

· Institutional reform introduced – new powers to the European Parliament and extension of qualified voting majority in the Council of Ministers.

· A common foreign and security policy allowed for through intergovernmental cooperation

· Agreement on increased intergovernmental cooperation on issues such as immigration and asylum seekers.

· Move towards economic and monetary union.

The Maastricht Treaty was not welcomed among many Conservatives, even though bit was John Major who signed up to the Treaty. It had a long and difficult passage through Parliament. One major complaint was it increased the path towards federalism. Eurosceptics attacked this claiming it was the slide towards a European superstate with a huge centralized bureaucracy. However, supporters of Maastricht and federalism interpret as a means of decentralizing power, not centralizing it. Another controversial issue was monetary union. Maastricht laid down the disappearance of national currencies and the introduction of a single European currency, and the establishment of central European bank. This would have powers to set interest rates for the whole EU.The other contentious area of Maastricht was the Social Chapter. The aim was to harmonize laws across the EU on social issues such as workers rights e.g. a minimum wage; this was designed to prevent unfair competition through exploitation of workers. In order to stave off defeat at home, and keep the Conservative Party on board, John Major negotiated an opt-out of the Social Chapter claiming it would increase the costs to business.[5]

1.5 Government of T. Blair

1.5.1 Social Chapter

In 1997 Labour party, headed by T. Blair, was elected. The Blair government immediately demonstrated its pro-EU credentials by incorporating the Social Charter into UK law. It stood back, however, from participating in the launch of the single European currency in 1999. The government’s official position on this issue was that it supported the single currency in principal, but would not join until economic conditions were appropriate. The government also promised that the UK would not to join until the electorate had voted to do so in a referendum. [3, p.24]

A new government found itself plunged immediately into a new round of treaty amendment negotiations. The proposals aired in the Amsterdam Treaty were relatively modest in effect. The Amsterdam Treaty was signed in 1997 and the UK agreed with following issues:

· On human rights, discrimination on the grounds of gender, race, religion, sexuality and age was outlawed.

· Free movement of people was guaranteed (although UK and Eire allowed keeping their border controls).

· Law on divorce, immigration, visas and asylum were to be common throughout the EU.