The Consolidation of EU as an Emerging Superpower

The European Union as an emerging superpower or consolidated, are concepts advocated by many scholars and political analysts. Among them, some believe that the European Union (EU) is, or will soon be, a superpower in the full range of issues in the world concert of nations of the XXI century. Some groups argue that the EU has already achieved superpower status, taking into account the size and global reach of its economy and its influence on international politics.

Both from the specialized media and from the society in general, the perception that the EU is already a superpower in the process of affirmation, is the concept that the EU is or will be part of the group surely new superpowers, where traditionally group cited at least Brazil, China, India, and Russia, who are together or individually could compete in power with the United States in the twenty-first century.

This perception on the current and future EU role, especially lies in the demographic amplitude and economic growth of this group of countries, which among other things is due to the addition of new member states. This potential is not entirely new, it has also been highlighted by the story and partly thanks to the richness and cultural diversity of Europe.

The European Union also has certain weaknesses: For example, because politically it is still not a monolithic block, which results in certain decisions are made ??slowly, and sometimes in fits and starts as the group is far from a single state. And the other big EU should quite possibly is its monetary system. The single currency for a substantial part of Europe, which gave assume greater strength and prestige to Europe, has clashed with the differences in development and legislation and specialties of the countries that adopted the common currency, which largely has generated the cascading crises that have occurred in recent years.

The nature of power has changed after the end of the Cold War, prompting a new definition of superpower, and seen that military power is no longer so all in terms of results and enforcement, as also has control over the means of production that it's more important than control over the means of destruction. The hard power exerted and exerts military threat from certain countries with large and active military, in contrast to the opportunities and scope of soft power exercised by the European Union for decades. True, the EU is not yet an entirely monolithic group for example in terms of foreign policy and international diplomacy, but progress has been made ??in terms of building community institutions and community bodies.

The European Union is an organization in constant evolution. Certain European countries and certain sectors within them, ponder and speculate about a greater degree of integration and complementation, which in particular could give the Union closer to that of a superpower in all respects profile. Other regions may prefer to emulate the "European Dream" of the American variant. This could be the focus in the Union of South American Nations and the African Union.

The EU as a whole is one of the most culturally diverse regions on the planet. Some of the most influential languages ??in the world have their origin in their territory. The EU has also developed a sphere of influence over the nations geographically close, which attempt to protect herself, like a shield, with respect to instability and corruption.

France and UK are permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations, and Germany is part of the so called Group of Four, who compete with each other for another permanent seat. The EU also includes several non-permanent members, so much can happen that five of the fifteen members of the Security Council, may be represented at some point to EU countries.

Aspects relating to the policy of European integration in some sense supposedly allow the EU to bring its comprehensive profile of superpower certainly are debatable, controversial and speculative.

Areas where the supremacy factors manifested

The European Union extends over an area of about 4 million square kilometers, the seventh largest in the world extension. The vast population of the EU is highlighted, and its large economy (the EU has the world's largest economy, accounting for the same within their borders (year 2011), it is noted that this value is slightly higher corresponding to the US in terms of GDP purchasing.

The EU is the world's leading economic power, with 29,89% of global GDP in 2006, or 14,420 billion dollars. The average income per inhabitant per year between 27,000 and $ 30,000 with strong variations from one state to another. The first European economies are Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain.

The EU has asserted its prestige and power over many other nations in a long series of issues, including initiating discussions with China on exports of textiles and establishing negotiations with the United States on alleged subsidies paid to Airbus and Boeing. Some EU states have recognized and accepted worldwide currencies: the euro in the Eurozone and the pound/sterling in the UK.

The European Union has large oil reserves (the eighth largest oil producer in the world), as well as coal, of uranium, of iron ore, etc. However, the region must currently import many important resources, since it does not become self-sufficient, being dependent on energy, mainly from Russia.

Furthermore, the EU is at the forefront in terms of utilization and development of renewable energy (75% involves the production of wind energy worldwide), and in this area has ambitious projects and objectives, including They will have to meet 12% of its energy needs with renewable sources by 2010, and 20% in 2020.

In 2009, the EU regrouped around 500 million people, or 7.8% of the world population, in third place behind China and India. Several EU countries have a rate of population renewal and negative immigration weak, and generally this is also true in some candidates to join the union. However, this ignores the farthest possible extensions, among which stands out the Accession of Turkey to the European Union, which would increase the population of the group of countries 70 million people alone. But by 2050, and current rates of population growth in both the United States and Indonesia have had a significant increase in population, and perhaps the EU can then be moved to the third position in terms of population (it can also happen that constitute another union, like the EU, elsewhere in the world).

Globally, the EU has a high life expectancy of 78.1 years, and the Human Development Index (HDI) is also high, higher than the United States and higher than in any other emerging power.

Given the future enlargement of the European Union, the eventual accession of the missing part of Europe not only boost the EU economy, but also increase the EU population, which can be considered analogous bearing to India or China. But the EU is qualitatively different from these two populous Asian countries, as it is technologically more advanced.

Policy, the EU member states have some of the electoral systems and more stable and consolidated world government. In part, this is because they have a stable government is a condition required for all possible accession to the EU. Potential new members, particularly those located in Central Europe, at least have significant levels of corruption, which certainly does not contribute to stability and work negatively.

The issue of military power in the EU is actively discussed and the governments of some Member States refuse to have extensive use of military forces, including states such as Austria and Ireland, has an official policy of neutrality. However, with budgets totaling 194,000 million euros in 2011, defense spending of the EU Member States was higher than in China, Russia and Japan together.

Moreover, two Member States, France and the UK, have an arsenal of hundreds of nuclear warheads. Although these stockpiles are lower than those of the United States or Russia, they are weapons of deterrence credible. Both European states have signed defense treaties which provide combined forces. Other states are opposed to nuclear energy, as in the case of Germany, where public opinion condemns the use of nuclear weapons.

As for the arms industry, this is a sector entity in the Member States. With a turnover of EUR 96,000 million in 2012, 400,000 jobs 960,000 direct and indirect is an important factor of European industrial competitiveness. The European Defense Agency contributes to the development of this industry. Concerted military procurement projects in the EU represents 25% of total defense procurement. The remaining 75% is carried out at national level, generates duplication and inconsistency fosters systems.

This area of research and development is present within the EU and some of its member states. For example, several European countries have participated in one way or another on the International Space Station, and a whole guide a common space program through the European Space Agency (ESA), but this organization is not funded directly by the EU.

The lines of development of ESA are several. He successfully developed its own series of missiles, Ariane and holds the spaceport of Kourou, French Guiana. It should be noted however, that strictly speaking no European nation participated directly in the Conquest of Space (except for some countries of the former Soviet bloc), as required for cases was preferred place to buy some Russian or American flight. ESA also sent probes to other planets, such as Venus, Mars, and Titan (the latter a moon of Saturn). The EU has also developed its own network of satellite positioning: Galileo, which competes with the American system GPS and with the Russian system GLONASS.

If the medals are counted won by member states of the European Union, and although the competitions are not presented with a common computer, you could say that the European group is one of the world sporting superpower par excellence.

In the Beijing Olympics, the EU (then with 27 members) won 87 gold medals, or as many as the United States and China combined. However these figures should be qualified as the number of participants per nation is limited by regulation, so due to this circumstance, Europe is clearly overrepresented in sports events. A European team together, probably it would have earned less winners and finalists locations (particularly in team sports) that would result from the sum of the values ??of their nations participating individually.

The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he was prime minister in 2005, said: "In 10 or 15 years the EU will be a place where the fusion of civilizations fulfills his dream of becoming a real superpower, with the inclusion of Turkey stands out “.

Robert J. Guttman wrote in 2001 that the very definition of superpower has changed, and that in the XXI century, will refer not only to states with great military power, but also groups such as the European Union with a strong economy market, savvy technology highly skilled workers, and an overview of the progress of the world. But Friis Arne Petersen, Danish Ambassador to US has expressed different opinions in part to Indicate coming as it acknowledged that the EU is a "special kind of superpower”, which has yet to establish a unified military force in order to exert more significant influence globally.

It is further argued by some commentators, that full political integration is necessary for the European Union, for if we act by consensus alike can come to exert a significant influence internationally. Perhaps the apparent weakness of the EU is the most significant force (from its highly diversified diplomacy low profile, and the emphasis on the rule of law). The EU represents a new kind of international actor, although however it is unclear whether the effectiveness of such influence would be equal to that of an integrated and consolidated political superpower like the United States.

Barry Buzan said potential superpower status of the EU depends on the "statehood", although it is not clear whether the quantity and quality of the state is necessary for the EU becomes a superpower. Buzan said the EU is likely to remain a potential superpower for decades, because although it has material wealth, his "political weakness and its erratic course in some respects, accentuated by the difficult internal political developments, particularly with regard to common foreign and defense "policy restricts the possibilities of becoming a superpower.

The current finance minister and former prime minister, Finland Alexander Stub , said that the EU is and is not a superpower; clearly the EU is a superpower in the sense that it is the largest political union, with a single large internal market coupled with that is one of the largest donors in the world, yet is not a superpower in terms to defense, or in the areas of foreign policy. As Barry Buzan, Stubb thinks that the most important factor that prevents or hinders the revival of the EU, so that you can achieve superpower status, is the lack of a centralized state and recognized, which joins other factors such as the lack of internal drive for a global conception in terms of energy development and the continued preference for the sovereignty of nation-states European history from a few.

However, other analysts do not believe that the EU can achieve the status of superpower. "The EU is not and will never be a superpower" , as the British politician David Miliband . In the absence of a unified foreign policy and inability to project military power worldwide, the EU lacks "the main substance that characterizes the superpowers" , which by definition must have great military strength, and ability to quickly reach anywhere on the planet with the troops that are required in order to to impose their own will or at least balance adverse situations.

Economist Robert Lane Greene for his part noted that the lack of a strong European military force only exacerbates the lack of unity of the EU foreign policy, although he admits that a good strength overall response at European level to rival the US is absolutely "unthinkable" at least from an economic point of view. The biggest obstacle to a true European superpower, is that European elites refuse to carry out their postmodern fantasies about the illegitimacy of military "power hard "in line with the way the rest of the world interprets reality unfortunately.

Meanwhile the British Michael Howard, warned against the "concern" that many Europeans are pushing for greater integration and coordination within the EU in order to counter American power, while the main factor of dependence on Europe, the lack of a "shared identity".

For others however, the European Union should be a "model power" without fear of using military force and support for free trade in the broadest sense.

Arguments Against the Development of a European Superpower

Progress concerning the European integration and federalization, should this policy be chosen by the EU as a whole, seem necessary for the EU to access the superpower status. The rejection of the new European constitution by the citizens of the founding countries of the EU and those generally considered favorable to integration, France and the Netherlands in 2005 has slowed progress towards further integration. Following the comments made ??by the Austrian Presidency, the constitution will, perhaps, be brought up to date, although it is the subject of a continuing debate about its feasibility. The Dutch government has indicated its rejection of any proposal with a similar content to the first constitution. Former German government wants the European Constitution to be submitted to France until it says "yes", what is considered by some as undemocratic. The Poland is particularly opposed to the European Constitution because it would limit national decisions in foreign policy and defense matters; Moreover, any changes would weaken the role of NATO or the United States, major support from the Polish government. But a possible failure of the constitution can prevent some countries to move forward (forming a multi-speed Europe). This is already the case with the euro or the Schengen agreements.

Euroscepticism

The Euroscepticism is important in Britain and Scandinavia. The EU enlargement in Eastern Europe created a broad debate in Western Europe. A stronger debate takes place on the entry of Turkey.

Demographically, the EU population is aging rapidly. The same rate as that of Japan, it is however not as important as those of Russia and Ukraine. Yet the EU will face a shortage of labor, economic growth decreased and high social spending.

The EU does not fulfill all the criteria for appointment superpower because it has no unified army, among other important reasons. For example, the forces of the United Kingdom, Spain and Italy took part in the invasion and occupation of Iraq in early 2003. The French and German governments condemned the invasion. The problem of unity is due to the fact that there is no common foreign and defense policy without unanimity among member countries, and the ability to deploy forces abroad remains under the control of Member States. That such military forces are supported or not by the EU and the Member States removed is subject to numerous altercations. There is indeed no formal proposal on this subject now that many people aspire to do for a long time the EU has such powers. The political and military fragmentation is the biggest limit to the EU's recognition as a superpower.

Although the EU is currently an important economy than the United States, its annual economic growth rate is only 1.7%, while the US is 2.5%. But they are virtually similar with a capital base (compared to China grew 9.2% and India 7.1%). Gross domestic income is only one statistic and should be interpreted with caution, its use is also not without controversy.