The European Union began as the European Economic Community (EEC), a result of ratification of the Maastricht treaty by member states' parliaments, with the founding members Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands. Over time, in addition to the EU enlargement policy, the membership grew and the EU members now include Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia. Bulgaria and Romania also joined as members in 2007.
The current presidency of the EU Council belongs to France, and that makes President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of the European Council as well. The president for European Commission is José Manuel Durão Barroso, former Prime Minister of Portugal, while the European Parliament is presided by Hans-Gert Pöttering.
The organization embraces democracy and the rule of law, requiring member states to possess some form of representative government. With the consent of member states, the EU legislates a variety of issues by treaty, including trade, customs, travel, currency, and defense. Members choose to participate in various EU institutions, delegating sovereignty in order to achieve common goals.
The key governing bodies in the EU include the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, and the European Commission. Another most important EU institution is the European Court of Justice.
The Council of the European Union forms one half of the EU's legislature. Although the Council meets in different compositions, it is considered to be one single body. It is an organized platform where ministers responsible for the area of policy being addressed meet to discuss issues.
The European Parliament, formerly European Parliamentary Assembly, forms the other half of the EU's legislature. The Parliament and the Council form and pass legislation jointly, using in certain areas of policy. This procedure will extend to many new areas under the proposed Treaty of Lisbon, and hence increase the power and relevance of the Parliament. The European Parliament cannot initiate legislation, but it can amend or veto it in many policy areas. In certain other policy areas, it has the right only to be consulted. Parliament also supervises the European Commission, it must approve all appointments to it, and can dismiss it with a vote of censure. It also has the right to control the EU budget.
The European Commission is responsible for initiating legislation and handling the daily running of the EU. Contrary to the EU Council reflect national interests, the Commission is intended to act solely in the interest of the EU as a whole. The commission is also seen as the motor of European integration.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is the highest court in the EU. It has the ultimate say on matters of EU community law in order to ensure equal application across the various member states. It is not, however, the highest court in matters of national law where each member have its own legal system. ECJ ensures that EU-level legislation is interpreted and applied in the same manner across the whole of the EU in order to avoid national courts interpreting the same legislation differently. Its decisions are binding, ensuring member states, and institutions follow the law. A Court of First Justice was created in 1989 to be attached under the ECJ, which has a Civil Service Tribunal attached to it.
Like the United Nations, the primary objective of EU development cooperation is the eradication of poverty in the context of sustainable development. EU aid aims to improve basic physical and social infrastructures and productive potential as well as to strengthen democratic state institutions. This support can also help poor countries benefit from international trade opportunities and attract more inward investment to broaden their economic base.
The EU's development cooperation aims to give disadvantaged people in the third world control over their own development. This means countering the sources of their vulnerability, including poor access to food and clean water, or to health, education and jobs and a sound environment. It also means fighting disease and promoting access to cheap medicines to combat scourges like AIDS as well as action to reduce their debt burden that diverts scarce resources away from vital public investments back to lenders in the industrialised countries. The EU also uses development cooperation as a way to promote human rights and gender equality and to prevent conflicts.
European Union strives to practice peace and to promote peace and solidarity in other countries outside EU. The European Union is well placed to promote democracy and human rights. It seeks to uphold the universality and the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna reaffirmed indivisibility of human rights - civil, political, economic, social and cultural. The European Union has also always played the role of peacemaker in times of war, like in Sudan, Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Macedonia. The world's biggest trader, the EU is also the biggest provider of aid to developing countries. It has created a more pro-active foreign and security policy with the capacity to carry out crisis-management and peace-keeping missions within Europe and far beyond. In 2006 alone, it provided a budget of about 671 million euros, 48% of which went to the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.
