Introduction
The European Union (EU) evolved from a regional economic agreement between six neighboring states, to today’s supranational organization of 28 nations across the European continent. These six states often accorded founding nation status include France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, Germany, and Italy. The lasting peace that has in the past half a century prevailed in Europe can largely be attributed to the formation of the European Union. As a matter of fact, this was the principle reason for the formation of the EU; to bring to end bloody conflicts between rival nations across the European continent. According to the European Union (2015), the EU first emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War with the …show more content…
As a matter of fact, history is rife with various other conceited efforts to achieve a unified Europe. However, as it will be shown, most of these efforts have never embraced the unification model that was envisioned when the EU was born. At the turn of the 19th century, Napoleon Bonaparte made an attempt to exert control over most of Europe. A century later, the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler also attempted to conquer and dominate all of Europe. The key takeaway from these two examples is the fact that according to CIVITAS (2014), France and Germany have always been the two chief belligerent nations, both politically and economically, which perhaps explains why some of their leaders have attempted to conquer Europe. It also explains why history considers both France and Germany to be the chief catalysts of both World War I and World War …show more content…
The role of the president and his or her vices is to represent the EU parliament to both the outside world and other EU institutions. Parliament holds plenary sessions each year, which bring aboard the 20 parliamentary committees that specialize on specific domains of EU activity. At these plenary meetings, issues of concern as tabled by each committee are discussed or debated by the various political groups formed by EU members of parliament.
The Role of the EU Parliament The first role of the EU parliament is to legislate; in essence, to pass laws. This power is, however, often split between the EU parliament and The Council, as both can exercise it. According to the EU (2012), the authorization of parliament is required for all international agreements, proposals, institutional decisions, and matters of