European Community

European Community is an official term used to describe a contractual arrangement between fifteen countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom). The European Union, on the other hand, refers to the 1994 Treaty on European Union, which is also called the Mastricht Treaty, named after the city in the Netherlands where the agreement was reached. The goal of this treaty is the creation of a true economic and monetary union of all European Community [Page 471](EC) members. The EC has been recently been defined as a community of “365 million citizens—voluntarily joined by a political desire to present a united front to the great challenges of our age” (Court of Justice of the European Communities 2002). Its objectives are

• to promote European unity; to improve living and working conditions for its citizens; to foster economic development, balanced trade and fair competition; to reduce economic disparities between regions; to help developing countries; and to preserve peace and freedom. (Court of Justice of the European Communities 2002)

Similar objectives can be found in statements describing many programs and projects at various government levels (national, state, and local) in North America and western Europe.

There are those observers who are concerned that the national sovereignty of member nations is being eroded by European centralized power, to the detriment of communities. Sometimes overlooked is the increasing importance of regional affiliation in Europe. The economic success of regional economic development around the Baltic Sea, for example, recalls the economic importance of earlier regions: the North Rhine–Westphalia area, the Middle Rhinelands, and northwestern Italy.

The European Council of the European Union, which has representation from all fifteen member nations, has tried using the power of consensus in decision making; stronger nations have been able to veto certain administrative decisions by slow or nonexistent compliance over periods of time, at least in a de facto manner. This is in sharp contrast to nations with strong economies working in tandem with others for short-term political gain but opposing centralized decisions.