Discuss Whether Enlargement Has Been the Most Important Eu Development for the Uk Since 1997

Discuss whether enlargement has been the most important EU development for the UK since 1997 (30)

Since 1997 the European Union has experienced a number of changes which have altered the way that the EU is organised. The most important of these has been the enlargement of the EU from 15 member states in 1999 to 27 member states in 2007. Whether this has had a positive or negative effect on the UK is still unclear but it definitely has been the most important. People argue that treaties such as those at Nice and Amsterdam have developed the EU the most in the last eighteen years, however many of these treaties are focused around changing the EU to cope with the expansion that it is experiencing.

The EU faced its largest period of enlargement in 2004 when ten more states joined. The policy of enlargement has impacted on the UK allowing an increase in immigration helping to drive Britain’s economic growth. This allows Britain, which is one of the richer European nations, to use cheap labour to increase productivity, thus improving the economy. Furthermore Britain gains more from being a member of a large single market than it would do from having to pay out transfers to the poorer countries. With more countries joining the EU, it means that Britain has more countries it can freely trade with, rather than having to pay taxes and tariffs to them if these countries weren’t part of the EU.

However even though enlargement has had a positive effect on Britain it has also led to mass immigration which has a close correlation with an increase in organised crime. The enlargement of the EU has included many poorer countries, whose workers are taking jobs from richer countries and therefore companies are relocating to countries with lower labour costs and worse social protection, so as to increase their profit margin. There have also been many complaints that due to the EU becoming broader it is harder to achieve deeper integration, which is one the main goals that the EU set out to achieve when it was founded, and with more countries joining it is becoming increasingly harder for all countries to agree on policies, which is slowing down the progress and work of the EU.

Even though enlargement may not have had a completely positive effect on Britain, it has been a very important development for the UK since 1997.

On the other hand, there have been other developments that have changed the EU for Britain. Firstly the Treaty of Amsterdam signed in 1997 created open borders between twelve of the member states, expanded the role of the Common Foreign and Security Policy by creating a High Representative to take overall responsibility for EU foreign affairs, and extended the powers of Europol, the European police agency, on the understanding that both these powers were controlled intergovernmental. Most importantly it changed the way that decision were made in the EU by expanding the number of decisions covered by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) and also allowed a member state to opt out of security or foreign affairs without preventing other countries from going ahead with a policy. This treaty was very important for Britain and the EU, providing room for some countries to move faster along the path to integration, the Amsterdam Treaty created greater flexibility, and it also made enlargement possible, entrenching democracy for millions in Eastern Europe. This is an important development for the EU however many of the policies in the treaty would not have had to be passed if enlargement had not taken place, for example the policy that opened borders between twelve of the member states.