Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Part I The economics of the European Union
- 1 Old Europe, new Europe: the role of the European Union
- 2 A dispute over origins: the European view versus the American perspective
- 3 The customs union and the diversion of trade
- 4 The Common Agricultural Policy and reforms: feeding Europe and then some
- 5 The euro: the ultimate currency reform?
- 6 The European Central Bank in action
- 7 The single market: from eliminating non-tariff barriers to enforcing competition
- 8 The single market in labor: from refugees to Schengen
- 9 The single market in capital: from Bretton Woods to Maastricht
- 10 The EU inside and out: regional policy and development aid
- 11 The EU: the other economic superpower?
- Part II The economies of Europe
- Suggestions for further reading
- Index
1 - Old Europe, new Europe: the role of the European Union
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Part I The economics of the European Union
- 1 Old Europe, new Europe: the role of the European Union
- 2 A dispute over origins: the European view versus the American perspective
- 3 The customs union and the diversion of trade
- 4 The Common Agricultural Policy and reforms: feeding Europe and then some
- 5 The euro: the ultimate currency reform?
- 6 The European Central Bank in action
- 7 The single market: from eliminating non-tariff barriers to enforcing competition
- 8 The single market in labor: from refugees to Schengen
- 9 The single market in capital: from Bretton Woods to Maastricht
- 10 The EU inside and out: regional policy and development aid
- 11 The EU: the other economic superpower?
- Part II The economies of Europe
- Suggestions for further reading
- Index
Summary
In Athens, Greece, origin of the Western ideals of democracy and human rights, the heads of government of twenty-five European nation states gathered to sign the Treaty of Accession into the European Union on April 16, 2003. Fifteen nations were already member states of the European Union and they had unanimously agreed to accept all ten of the accession states into their club, out of the thirteen candidate countries that had applied. But the agreement was conditional on each of the ten applicants agreeing to accept all the existing rules of the club as explained to them and interpreted by the fifteen incumbents (the so-called acquis communautaire of the European Union). Further, each of the ten applicants had to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the incumbents not only that they accepted all the acquis but that they were capable of putting it into practice on their own, without extensive subsidies or technical assistance from the existing members. Throughout the rest of the year each accession state put the treaty to a referendum of their voters, and in May 2004 the European Union expanded its size to twenty-five member states, with a population of 454.5 million and an estimated gross domestic product (GDP) of $10.3 trillion, making it the largest economy in the world, surpassing the United States of America, with its fifty states, 280.5 million people, and GDP of $10.1 trillion.
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- The Economics of Europe and the European Union , pp. 3 - 21Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007