Euro histoire - dossier UE

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However, remember that you have the chance to be European.

- You can move freely : for tourism, job or study.

- You live in a healthy environment on the continent the less polluted and most secured.

- And finally, you can enrich you in contact with people from other cultures

The disadvantages of the European Union

- Circulation, immigration and boundaries

There is a big problem of overcrowding in EU : the citizens of member countries are free to move from one place to another ; this has led to overcrowding in the major cities of UK and it has increased prices of houses, as well as congestion on the roads.

Moreover, Europe is a land of immigration which is increasing. Immigrants cause problems because they come to Europe without work. These people are looking for work but most of them are unemployed. So this causes a rise in unemployment already present in the country.

- Economy, exports and imports

The European Union is the world's largest trading power with 45% of world exports. She is very specialized in food processing and aerospace.

Life in Europe is very expensive. One of the causes of these high prices also comes from the very important import in Europe.

Moreover, economically, Europe is moving too fast. It is difficult to make decisions or to establish international strategies throughout Europe because there are big differences between the economies of every country in Europe. Therefore, Europe is quickly blocked and growth slows. Employers hire labor that costs him the least expensive out this workforce is often a foreign country and less competent, so it prevents some of finding work because their salary expectations are higher than those foreigners, so it causes unemployment.

Shared wealth is not always good : because large and wealthy countries that are members of the European Union, like Germany, have to share their wealth with much smaller and poorer countries. This prevents any one country from becoming too powerful, which is a bad thing for countries that have the ability to become world leaders.

- Financially, expensive life

First of all, the ‘single currency’ poses a great problem : not all member countries are using the Euro and many problems have risen over the years...

It's costly to be a member of the EU : different sources claim that the cost per head ranges from £300 to £873.

There are inefficient policies : indeed, a large percentage of EU spending goes on the Common Agricultural Policy. For many years this distorted agricultural markets by placing minimum prices on food and this lead to highter prices for consumers.

Since European creation, companies have tended to come together and merge to benefit from economies of scale. So consumers see prices rise, which has a negative impact on their purchasing power. Product quality can also deteriorate (if companies do not meet certain standards, for example).

- Communication, education and socialy

Today, the European Union has some communication barriers... It becomes very difficult for the EU to communicate with all of its citizens because they all speack differents languages and they have differents cultures too. This also impact the feeling of unity among its members. It makes it harder to bring people together.

So, the most socially advanced countries can be hampered by the least developed countries. For example, when France has set the working age at 16, she was sentenced because Europe stared 15 years. Similarly, women could not work at night but Europe condemned France to allow women to work at night.