Potential benefits and problems of enlarging the European Union to include Eastern European Countries.

Essay by paul77 November 2005

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This essay will be analysing the potential benefits and problems of enlarging the European Union to include Eastern European countries. This will involve discussing the likely impact that enlargement would have on existing members and the Eastern European countries which will be joining. This will also concern the effect on issues such as common agriculture policy (CAP), services and migration between countries.

The potential benefits and problems of enlarging the EU are likely to come from many directions. Ranging from the beneficial outcomes of increasing economies of scale, to the potential danger that poorer EU nations will have to receive large budgets from existing EU nations.

Evidence will be used in order to produce a viable conclusion to this essay. The main point being whether Total Economic Integration (explained further down in this essay) can be reached by the added variable of the EU increasing in size. These problems and benefits will be distinguished.

The brief historical background of the European Union shows:

At the end of the Second World War, Europe's economies were shattered. It was realised by many western politicians that this was the direct outcome of unwise political decisions made at the end of the First World War when Germany had lost the war.

Huge war reparations and the isolation of Germany politically had given German fascists the chance to gain power and win support, which in turn led to the Second World War. Some had a vision of co-operation and a united peaceful Europe. This vision led to the creation of today's European Union (EU). .

The treaty of Rome was established in 1957, in which a customs union was created with provision for the phased withdrawals of all tariffs between the six member nations who were currently members of the EU. This was...