Evolution of the European Community
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European intentions to develop a true common foreign and security policy, as described in the Maastricht Treaty, are shaping up into some major battles over the structure and decisionmaking process of the European Community. The Community is continuing to struggle over defining and implementing the provisions of the Maastricht Treaty, which include problems ranging from uncertainty over the timetable for economic and monetary union--the single European currency which is supposed to encourage greater political unity--to fears of establishing the Western European Union as a non-NATO policing/military unit under Community direction. Central to these new developments in the European Community is the role of the office of the General Secretariat--the administrative and research arm of the European Community's Council of Ministers. This research examines the structure, functions and activities of the General Secretariat and assesses the role of the Secretariat in the newly emerging European Community of the 1990s. In order to understand how the office of the Secretariat operates, it is first necessary to discuss the evolution of the European Community and the maze of institutional structures that work together to maintain and help unify the Community. Europe has historically been racked by war; it is the continent that first experienced strife between nations. The terrifying and destructive consequences of World War II fed upon this historica
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the implementation of the rules which the Council lays down (Archer and Butler, 1992, p. 29).
The Council of Ministers is a collective body of 12 individuals--usually, but not always, the foreign ministers of each of the member nations. The actual composition of the Council varies according to the particular subjects being discussed. Thus, it is not quite correct to view the Council as a single legislative body. Instead, the Council is organized largely along functional lines. So according to the type of legislation being discussed, different Councils meet to discuss different legislation. For example, if the Commission proposes draft legislation on agricultural matters, then each member nation will probably send their agricultural ministers to cast votes on the Council. If the draft proposal concerns financial issues, the Council will likely be comprised of the finance ministers from each nation. The governments of each member nation are relatively unrestrained by the Community's treaties in deciding Council representation. There is no indication whatsoever in the treaties that decisions by a Council of lower level ministers carry any less weight than decisions by a Council of the foreign ministers. Nevertheless, the m
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Some common words found in the essay are:
European Community, Council Ministers, European Commission, Permanent Representatives, Common Market, Instead Council, Maastricht Treaty, Rome Treaties, Western European, European Parliament, european community, council ministers, draft legislation, european commission, committee permanent representatives, committee permanent, permanent representatives, european parliament, commission council, office secretariat, maastricht treaty, archer butler 1992, european atomic energy, european coal steel, atomic energy community,
Approximate Word count = 5055
Approximate Pages = 20 (250 words per page)
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