Careers, Jobs and Education Resources for: European Union

Following the two devastating World Wars of the first half of the 20th century, a number of European leaders in the late 1940s became convinced that the only way to establish a lasting peace was to unite the two chief belligerent nations - France and Germany - both economically and politically. In 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert SCHUMAN proposed an eventual union of all Europe, the first step of which would be the integration of the coal and steel industries of Western Europe. The following year the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up when six members, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris. The ECSC was so successful that within a few years the decision was made to integrate other parts of the countries' economies. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the six member states undertook to eliminate trade barriers among themselves by forming a common market. In 1967, the institutions of all three communities were formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a single Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament were initially selected by national parliaments, but in 1979 the first direct elections were undertaken and they have been held every five years since. In 1973, the first enlargement of the EC took place with the addition of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The 1980s saw further membership expansion with Greece joining in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht laid the basis for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic and monetary union - including a common currency. This further integration created the European Union (EU). In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, raising the membership total to 15. A new currency, the euro, was launched in world money markets on 1 January 1999; it became the unit of exchange for all of the EU states except the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In 2002, citizens of the 12 euro-area countries began using the euro banknotes and coins. Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - and in 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined, bringing the current membership to 27. In order to ensure that the EU can continue to function efficiently with an expanded membership, the Treaty of Nice (in force as of 1 February 2003) set forth rules streamlining the size and procedures of EU institutions. An effort to establish an EU constitution, begun in October 2004, failed to attain unanimous ratification. A new effort, undertaken in June 2007, calls for the creation of an Intergovernmental Conference to form a political agreement, known as the Reform Treaty, which is to serve as a constitution. Unlike the constitution, however, the Reform Treaty would amend existing treaties rather than replace them. (from the CIA)

Overview

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Economic Overview

Internally, the eu is attempting to lower trade barriers, adopt a common currency, and move toward convergence of living standards. internationally, the eu aims to bolster europe's trade position and its political and economic power. because of the great differences in per capita income among member states (from $7,000 to $69,000) and historic national animosities, the eu faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies. for example, since 2003 germany and france have flouted the member states' treaty obligation to prevent their national budgets from running more than a 3% deficit. in 2004 and 2007, the eu admitted 10 and two countries, respectively, that are, in general, less advanced technologically and economically than the other 15. eleven established eu member states introduced the euro as their common currency on 1 january 1999 (greece did so two years later), but the uk, sweden, and denmark chose not to participate. of the 12 most recent member states, only slovenia (1 january 2007) and cyprus and malta (1 january 2008) have adopted the euro; the remaining nine are legally required to adopt the currency upon meeting eu's fiscal and monetary convergence criteria.

Environmental Issues

Population

491,018,683 (july 2008 est.)

Location

Europe between the north atlantic ocean in the west and russia, belarus, and ukraine to the east

Area

Total: 4,324,782 sq km

Less than one-half the size of the us

Capital

Name: brussels (belgium), strasbourg (france), luxembourg geographic coordinates: 50 50 n, 4 20 e time difference: utc+1 (6 hours ahead of washington, dc during standard time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last sunday in march; ends last sunday in october note: the council of the european union meets in brussels, belgium, the european parliament meets in brussels and strasbourg, france, and the court of justice of the european communities meets in luxembourg

International Disputes

As a political union, the eu has no border disputes with neighboring countries, but estonia has no land boundary agreements with russia, slovenia disputes its land and maritime boundaries with croatia, and spain has territorial and maritime disputes with morocco and with the uk over gibraltar; the eu has set up a schengen area - consisting of 22 eu member states that have signed the convention implementing the schengen agreements or "acquis" (1985 and 1990) on the free movement of persons and the harmonization of border controls in europe; these agreements became incorporated into eu law with the implementation of the 1997 treaty of amsterdam on 1 may 1999; in addition, non-eu states iceland and norway (as part of the nordic union) have been included in the schengen area since 1996 (full members in 2001), bringing the total current membership to 24; the uk (since 2000) and ireland (since 2002) take part in only some aspects of the schengen area, especially with respect to police and criminal matters; nine of the 12 new member states that joined the eu in 2004 joined schengen on 21 december 2007; of the three remaining eu states, cyprus is expected to join by 2009, while romania and bulgaria continue to enhance their border security systems

Sources: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

357240 European Union Jobs Found

Pharmacy Technician - Infusion

Infusion Pharmacy Technician Opportunity! We are now hiring a Pharmacy Technician to join our team in a Closed Door Setting! This is a 1+ month long...
CareerStaff Rx - AL - Birmingham - posted about 18 hours ago

General Dentist Fontana

Pacific Dental Services and its affiliated Owner Dentist are looking for an experienced dentist to join our team part time in our state of the art...
Pacific Dental Services, Inc. - CA - Fontana - posted about 18 hours ago

General Dentist Upland

Life Cycle Logistician, Sr.

Tetra Tech is an international engineering and consulting firm recognized as being a leader in our industry. Tetra Tech, Inc. is a primary provider of...
Tetra Tech - OH - Dayton - posted about 18 hours ago

Desktop Engineer

Job Classification: Direct Hire •**PERM Position***Our client is looking for a Desktop Engineer (3rd Level Support) with strong application packaging...
TEKsystems, Inc - NY - New York - posted about 18 hours ago

Project Engineer (Structural)

FDH is seeking a Project Engineer with two or more years of industry experience in our structural department. The Structural Project Engineer I...
FDH - NC - Raleigh - posted about 18 hours ago

Facility Director-Healthcare

CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world's largest commercial real estate services...
CBRE - CA - Sacramento - posted about 18 hours ago

Vendor Service Specialist

Job Classification: Contract Position Description:Your responsibilities will have great variety, client requests come in all shapes and forms, and...
Aerotek - TX - Denton - posted about 18 hours ago

Horizon Truck Sales & Leasing Manager - Laredo, TX

Horizon Truck Sales & Leasing, a premier class-8 truck leasing & sales company focused on equipping owner operators to run in OTR, Regional, and...
- TX - Laredo - posted about 18 hours ago

Bi-lingual (Spanish) Rep-Retail Customer Support

Responsibilities You're primed to take your career to the next level - to start turning your professional and personal aspirations into realities. And...
Verizon Wireless S - GA - Tucker - posted about 18 hours ago

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