The European Union represents an economic as well as political union comprising 28
nations and member states. All the countries are located in Europe. The Union employs a system
that allows for decisions negotiations by intergovernmental organizations and supranational
institutions (Obadic 23-35). The members agreed to have a standard law that would apply to all
member states, making the Union a single integrated economy. EU policies are implemented to
regulate trade, development, free production and movement of products within member states,
free movement of people across the Border States, and enact legislation. Out of 28 member
states, 26 of them have recorded human growth, making the EU be the biggest economy (Chief).
Freedom of movement, better working conditions, access to quality healthcare, and reduced
prices of goods and services are among the advantages of the EU. Also, high-cost membership,
imbalanced policies, single currency, and overpopulation during the migration are some of the
disadvantages of the EU.
Freedom of movement of both goods and services and people comes as the first
advantage of the EU. Citizens are allowed to cross freely within member states with liberty.
They can do business, travel, learn, and reside in any of the EU states of their convenience
(Obadic 23-35). The nations within the EU view themselves as a single nation. Using one
standard visa is convenient for all member states. It eliminates traveling requirements and other
visa policies. This offers citizens within the Schengen area more options to travel, conduct
businesses, study, find new employment, and resettle in any nation.
Secondly, there are better job offers and protection for workers within the EU. British
nationals have the liberty to work in any nation within the EU. The EU has developed policies
and employment directives that protect the rights of workers across the EU nations. For all the
nations within the EU, working hours are outlined not to exceed 48 hours (Nugent). That
includes working overtime. Within the 24 hours of working, employees are entitled to rest
breaks, paid leave days, and extra protection for those doing night shift jobs. Because of free
labor within the region, the job market has become flexible. Immigrants can be used to fill
employment gaps that may be experienced by one nation (Nugent). For example, in the United
Kingdom, nursing jobs are filled by foreigners from other nations within the EU. The conditions
provided by the EU increase job opportunities, which in return raises the country's GDP and
productivity. There were specific implications to the benefits and policies relating to job offers
and standardization. Some jobs and occupations were greatly affected. For example, mobile
workers, managing directors, and armed forces. But in general, the policies benefited the
majority of the workers. Both temporary and fulltime workers were entitled to similar working
conditions.
Additionally, member states have access to quality health benefits. EU provides all
citizens within its Union with healthcare insurance that they can use to access healthcare
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anywhere they want within the Union countries. The most exciting thing about the health benefit
is that the rules and policies that apply to the citizens also apply to the immigrants from the
member state nations. In this way, all citizens, both local and foreign, enjoy great healthcare
benefits and peace of mind.
Finally, on the benefits, Prices are standardized within its member states. The EU
operates as a single member state. It, therefore, means that prices on goods and services need to
be standardized across the member states (Lorca-Susino). The outcome is low prices that are
reduced even further due to a lack of custom tax. One thing that makes goods and services
expensive is due to the customs tax that comes with it. However, within the member states, all
products and services are customs tax-free. Moreover, goods acquired from the shops within the
member states do not have custom or excise duty on them provided they are for home
consumption.
Flipping the coin, there is a high membership cost associated with the EU. It is said that
the cost per head is between 3000 and 900 euros (Chief). That is why the net worth expenditure
of the United Kingdom can go up to 6.9 billion euros. Any nation that is willing to be part of the
European Union has to seriously consider if the cost of joining the Union is worth the benefits
they will receive. Additional to the benefits described above, the EU offers excellent benefits,
protection, standard policies, and support for all its nations' in case of an economic or political
crisis. Nevertheless, Nugent states that the nations have to make a choice and weigh the options
of being part of the EU or stand-alone. Standing alone, especially for small EU nations, is more
expensive. And so, they have to endure the membership fee even if it burdens the taxpayers.
Moreover, there is a problem with the policies in the EU. Regulations that were designed
to protect lower member states cannot protect large members and vice versa. EU focuses on the
entire Union and not an individual state. For instance, wealthy nations in the EU are required to
share their resources with other countries (Lorca-Susino). For example, when Greece defaulted
to pay the loan, Germany was needed to step in and bail Greece out. The EU policies deny
individual nations the freedom to make their own decisions on some issues, responsibilities, and
processes. For example, the EU placed another leader in Greece and removed the existing
leadership before they felt it was necessary. This reveals that member nations have no full
control over the democracy of their nation.
The EU has emphasized the use of a single currency, and it demands all the members use
one money that is the euro. Unfortunately, the euro has a lot of problems with the euro in the EU,
which includes high rates of employment, and unstable interest rates. The UK decided to get out
of the euro to enjoy their independent currency and economic policies that are not confined to
pursue austerity.
Finally, the advantage of the free movement of people across the states causes a lot of
overcrowding during immigration (Chief). There is no control over immigration, and the
population in the United Kingdom has grown very high as there is no prohibiting anyone from
relocating to the UK. The nations within the EU, like the UK, experience hard economic effects
because of the free movement of people. Unvented immigrants can infiltrate counterfeit goods
and services to the foreign nation leading to market collapse. Additionally, events of crime have
been reported to increase in the UK due to unvented immigrants that cross over to the UK in
large numbers every year.
In conclusion, the European Union works in favor of some members and against some
members. The existence of the Union is associated with both great benefits and costly downside
of it too. It, therefore, calls for proper strategic plans to be made that will chart the next course of
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action. The strategy should point out the issues of concern by all members, like the use of
common currency, that is, the euro membership fee, among others. Member states will then
determine whether to be part or step out.
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Work cited:
Chief, Editor. "9 Foremost Advantages And Disadvantages Of The European Union". Green
Garage, 2015, https://greengarageblog.org/9-foremost-advantages-and-disadvantages-
of-the-european-union.
Lorca-Susino Maria. The European Union Decoded. London: Routledge, 2016. Print.
Nugent, Neill. The government and politics of the European Union. Palgrave, 2017.
Obadic, Alka. "Specificities of EU cluster policies." Journal of Enterprising Communities: