The European Union

what are the main EU aims?

peace
removing internal borders
achieving freedom
economic growth
promoting different cultures and languages

what are the main 5 institutions that comprise the EU?

European Commission
Council of the European Union
European Council
European Parliament
Court of Justice of the European Union

What is the role of the European Commission?

- initiates EU legislation
- drafts EU budget and allocates funding
- represents EU in international negotiations

what is the significance of the European Commission?
(what type of body is it? how is it structured? how is this determined?)

supranational body
27 commissioners (one from each country)
commissioners are not directly elected: each govt. nominates their commissioner and nominees are confirmed by European Parliament.

what is the role of the Council of the European Union

- main decision-making body of the EU (alongside Euro parliament)
- coordinates policies of EU nations
- approves legislation from the Euro Commission.
- approves the EU budget

what is the significance of the Council of the European Union?
whatt type of body is it? how structured? types of meetings?

intergovernmental body
govt. ministers from each nation attend and make decisions together
ten different types of meetings which are respectively attended by appropriate ministers.

what is the role of the European Council

- decides direction of the EU and policy priorities

what is the significance of the European Council?
type of body?
how often and who meets?

intergovernmental body
heads of government for each nation meet 4 times a year

what is the role of European Parliament?

- Approves legislation from the commission
- Approves the EU budget
- Provides democratic supervision of EU institutions

what is the significance of the European Parliament?
how many members
how elected
how allocated seats

only directly elected EU body
705 MEPs
each nation is allocated number of seats depending on size.

what is the role of the Court of Justice of the EU?

- judiciary of the EU
- interprets the law and assures it is applied in the same way across the whole EU
- rules against EU nations that infringe the law
- ensures the EU acts within its own laws

what is the significance of the Court of Justice of the EU
how appointed

judges appointed by national governments.

what is the main EU executive branch?

European Commission

what are the main two legislative power-sharing branches of the EU?

European Parliament
Council of the EU

what is the main judiciary of the EU?

the Court of Justice of the EU

what are the EU's main aims?
give 4 groups

- promote peace, the values of the EU and wellbeing of its citizens
- freedom, security and justice w/o internal borders
- economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among its members.
- respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity

give evidence that the EU has achieved its aim to:
promote peace, the values of the EU and the well being of its citizens

- member nations have not fought each other since end of WW2
- rising living standards and economic growth have coincided with EU's existence
- democracy and rule of law operate in EU countries

give evidence that the EU has NOT achieved its aim to:
promote peace, the values of the EU and the well being of its citizens

- EU faces threats from increasingly aggressive Russia, volatile MIddle East and home-grown terrorism
- rise of anti-EU populist parties shows citizen's frustration with EU, feeling it has not enriched their lives. e.g. BREXIT illustrating this
- EU has been criticised for having a democratic deficit

give evidence that the EU has achieved its aim to:
have freedom, security and justice w/o internal borders

- nations are part of the single market where the 4 freedoms apply
- 26 member states are members of the Schengen Area in which there are no border controls between countries.
- nations work together on policing and anti-terrorism. e.g. European Arrest Warrant to arrest criminals across the EU.

give evidence that the EU has NOT achieved its aim to:

- not all EU countries are in the Schengen Area, Ireland and Cyprus opted out
- border checks can be reimposed by Schengen members in a serious threat. e.g. Covid pandemic border checks.
- Schengen states like Austria and Denmark have used border checks to stop immigrants from the Middle East and Africa arriving via other countries in the Schengen Area.

give evidence that the EU has achieved its aim to:
have economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among member countries

- by pooling sovereignty, the EU nations act as a united front
- EU is 3rd largest economy in the world - by working together , EU nations make better trade deals than if they were alone.
- the EU single market is the largest in the world - created millions of jobs from 90s to 2010s and encouraged economic growth
- EU protects workers rights
- EU redistributes billions of wealth to less developed regions to try and reduce economic disparities across the EU.

give evidence that the EU has NOT achieved its aim to:
have economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among member countries

- Brexit was a huge blow to EU solidarity
- strong anti-EU voices within various member nations have made vocal calls for their own referendums on EU membership.
- the EU's goal of 'ever-closer union' has been promoted by some but criticised by others such as Italy and Netherlands.
- single market has been criticised for over-regulating smaller businesses.
- socioeconomic inequalities are growing in the EU, as in many capitalist economies

give evidence that the EU has achieved its aim to:
respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity

- EU has 24 official languages and gives funding for language learning
- every year 2 EU cities are selected to be the European capitals of culture.

give evidence that the EU has not achieved its aim to:
respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity

- EU criticised for large expenditure on translation services
- their goal that every EU citizen should speak 2 languages aside form their mother tongue has only been achieved by around 20% of total pop.
- several EU countries have introduced bans on certain Muslim women head coverings. in 2021 the EUCtJ ruled that employers were could ban employees from wearing the hijab in certain circumstances.

what are the main defining times of the impact of the EU on UK politics?

cautious involvement 70s-90s
rising euroscepticism 90s-2016
divided Britain: 2016 EU referendum
post-referendum politics
Brexit and devolution

when did the UK join the EU? what was it called?
how was the membership legitmised democratically?

UK joined European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973.
Labour held a referendum over continued membership in '75 and stayed.

what happened with Labour that made the Gang of Four leave and do what?

Labour moved left after '79 defeat and promised to leave EEC if elected.
this prompted 4 high profile members to leave Labour and form Social Democrat party which merged with Liberals in 1988 to become LibDems.

what did the government do in 1981 that reduced the impact of EU membership on UK

negotiated an EU budget rebate in 1981 and a selection of opt-outs from certain policies an treaties to maintain more UK sovereignty.

what was the main destablising issue under John Major? when was this?

Tory PM John Major had his government plagued by rebellions of Eurosceptic Tory MPs.

what was Blair's approach to the EU? how were the rest of Parliament

he was a Europhile
there was no consensus across Parliament.
there were Europhile/sceptics across both Labour and Conservatives.

what did Blair do in 2004 that garnered much criticism from Eurosceptics and right-wing newpapers

Blair authorised the 2004 EU expansion which resulted in high levels of immigration from new Eastern and Central European states and much criticism.

what were the main policies of the UKIP party that helped it to grow? leader?

Nigel Farage populist
criticised mass immigration, democratic deficit and bureaucracy of the EU.

who won European Parliament elections in 2014? who did they push to 3rd place

UKIP won
pushed Conservatives to 3rd place.

why did Cameron hold the referendum

in an attempt to prevent Conservative votes being taken by UKIP, he included a referendum promise in 2015 election manifesto.

who played lead role in Leave campaign from Tories

Boris Johnson
Michael Gove

what did most expert opinion argue that Brexit would do

damage the UK economy

what was the Leave campaign criticised for

making misleading claims about the impact of Brexit on the UK's finances.

how did the Remain campaign fail to convince voters

it focused on the economic risk instead of identifying the positive benefits of EU membership.

what was 2016 referendum result
what did it do

52% Leave 48% Remain
reveal divisions across the UK based on age, class, education, geography, etc.

what types of people were more likely to vote Leave in 2016

Older, working-class, less-educated, English and Welsh voters

what types of people were more likely to vote Remain in 2016

younger, middle-class, university-educated and living in London, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

what was the initial impact of referendum result

Cameron's resignation

what did the Brexit negotiations do in 2017-2019

overshadow all other political initiatives and dominated government activity

how was the 2016 result a challenge to parliamentary sovereignty

the majority of MPs were Remainers but the nation voted to leave.

how was the referendum result a defining moment that showed the clear limits of government power? first time?

government hoped to avoid a final vote on voting on Article 50 but the Supreme Court ruled this unlawful in the 1st Miller case.
making it clear that parliament is sovereign and makes the final decision.

what happened with the Parliament vote on Article 50?
what does this show?

most MPs ignored their personal views and voted to trigger Article 50.
shows importance of popular sovereignty in the UK whereby 'the people' are the supreme authority and the government receives their authority from them.

why did May resign?

Parliament was unable to agree on a Brexit deal. She was replaced by Brexiteer Johnson who also struggled to convince government.

what did the Supreme Court rule as ultra vires under Johnson's rule.

Johnson prorogued parliament for 5 weeks in 2019 which was ruled unlawful in the Miller v Prime Minister case.

why did Johnson call a snap election in 2019? what was his result?

to gain a majority through harnessing the the Brexit-fatigue felt by much of the electorate through his targeted 'Get Brexit Done' campaign.
won a large majority and passed Brexit through Parliament.

when did UK officially leave EU?

31st January 2020

how has Brexit presented issues with devolution?

Brexit presents an ongoing threat to the future of devolution as the devolved powers except Wales decisively voted Remain.

what the NI protocol?
how did Brexit threaten the peace between the nations?

within the Good Friday Agreement, the NI protocol was designed to protect peace by avoiding the need for border controls between NI and RoI.
with the UK leaving the EU customs union but the NI protocol still in place, there remain to be no official checks on goods crossing the Irish border but there have been checks in recent years that has threatened the credibility of the deal.

how has Brexit furthered calls for independence in Scotland?

Scotland strongly voted Remain and feel they are being unfairly dragged out of the EU and its benefits
the SNP have called for a second independence referendum as a result

what are some of the impacts of the EU on UK policy making in:
economy

- New Labour's eventual decision not to join the euro currency in 2003 allowed the UK to retain its own economic policy which gave it more protection from the problems faced by the Eurozone after the 2008 economic crisis.
- UK was a net contributor to the EU budget, meaning it had to pay more into the EU than it received back
- EU negotiates trade policies on behalf of its members. following Brexit, UK had greater freedom over its own trade deals.
However it has less influence because the economy is far smaller than that of the EU's.

what are some of the impacts of the EU on UK policy making in:
agriculture

- the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provided EU subsidies (funding support) for all EU farmers.
- CAP prevented UK from developing its own policies better-suited to its needs. (CAP criticised for allowing wealthy landowners to continue farming that damages the environment)
- after Brexit, government replaced CAP with 2020 Agriculture Act which introduced a new system of public support for farming.

what are some of the impacts of the EU on UK policy making in:
fisheries

- the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) prevented UK from protecting its fishing industry from competition. bc all EU commercial fishing boats had access to UK waters which damaged UK waters.
- issue has not been fully resolved as many in the fishing industry have criticised the govt. for not giving it full rights to fish UK waters w/o competition from EU fleets.

what are some of the impacts of the EU on UK policy making in:
social policy

- EU social policy led to increased rights for workers, e.g. paid holidays
- EU initiatives and laws to promote labour market gender equality (in maternity discrimination, shared parental leave, etc,) had a great impact on UK policy.
- Brexiteers argued there was no reason why UK could not do similar policies themselves.

what are some of the impacts of the EU on UK policy making in:
immigration

- freedom of movement prevented Uk govts. from restricting immigration from EU countries. in 2015, net migration from EU countries to UK was 190,000.
- Brexit has given UK govt.s more control over immigration policy

how did Johnson advertise his campaign to cut immigration that previous govt.s had failed to promise?

2010 - Cameron's Tory party promised to cut migration by 'tens of thousands' which was impossible with Freedom of movement
2019 - Johnson promised an Australian-style points system to manage immigration after Brexit.

what did many economists warn about immigration's role in the economy? example of this coming true

immigration is essential for the health of the economy.
the combination of Brexit and the pandemic led to a serious labour shortage in essential industries like catering and hospitality, agriculture, manufacturing and warehouse sectors.