Many experts and scholars divide regional integration into five levels: establishing free trade area, customs union, unified big market, economic and monetary union and political union. European integration crossed the stage of free trade area from the beginning, and realized the customs union in July 1, 1968. 1June 1993, the European unified market was basically completed, and1October 65438+ 1, 165438 was successfully launched.
tariff union
Starting from the customs union, the EU set out to establish a common market and developed into the highest form of economic integration, namely, economic and monetary union. Therefore, the customs union is the foundation of the existence and development of the EU. On July 1968 and 1, the EU completed the task of canceling trade restrictions and tariffs among member States and unifying foreign tariff rates among countries, and established a customs union one and a half years ahead of schedule. However, despite the abolition of all tariffs and the establishment of uniform customs tariffs among EU member States, customs procedures and many intangible barriers among member States still hinder the free circulation of goods for a long time. 1994 65438+ 10 1 EU promulgated a new customs law to simplify customs procedures and procedures and unify customs rules.
Unify the big market
1During the Milan Summit in June, 1985, the European Commission formally put forward the White Paper on Building a Unified Internal Market, which listed 300 specific measures (282 in the end) and proposed to build a "borderless" unified internal market in Europe and truly realize the free flow of people, goods, capital and services.
1985 65438+In February, the White Paper on Unified Big Market was approved by the Board of Directors.
In order to promote the implementation of the "White Paper", 1986 signed the "Single European Document" at the summits held in Luxembourg and The Hague on February 7 and 28, respectively, and put forward the concrete plan and timetable for implementing the 282 measures of the White Paper, and proposed to formally establish a unified big market by the beginning of 1993 at the latest. In addition, the document also made the first important amendment to the Treaty of Rome, changing "unanimous agreement" into "effective majority" as the decision-making procedure for matters related to the unified big market, which effectively facilitated the efforts of the Council and the Committee to build a unified big market. 1 99365438+1October1,the European unified market was basically completed and officially put into operation. After continuous improvement, the following results have been achieved:
1. adopted a series of laws and regulations on public procurement and construction market, strengthened transparency and market supervision, and opened the public market (excluding transportation, energy and telecommunications);
2. Unify the laws and regulations of member countries on direct tax, value-added tax and consumption tax, and narrow the tax differences among member countries;
3. Liberalize the capital market and financial services;
4. In the aspect of standardization, on the one hand, through the unified technical regulations of the European Union, on the other hand, the member States mutually recognize each other's technical standards and certifications, thus eliminating trade barriers in technical standards;
5. Through mutual recognition of academic qualifications and technical certificates, natural persons are free to work in other member countries. Free movement of people by canceling border inspections among Schengen agreement member States;
6. By coordinating the company law and intellectual property (trademarks and patents) legislation of member countries, it has created a good foundation for enterprises to promote industrial cooperation;
In order to further remove the obstacles to the free movement of people, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg signed an agreement on the free movement of people 1985 in June in Schengen, a small French-German border town in Luxembourg. Italy (1990165438+1October 27th), Spain and Portugal (199118), Greece (/kloc) Personnel from the seven countries and other EU countries can travel freely between the seven countries. Third-country personnel can travel freely between seven countries as long as they get a Schengen visa from one country. Italy and Austria began to implement the Schengen Agreement in June 1997, June 10 and February 12 respectively. 1 since March 1998, Italy and Austria have also cancelled all border inspections with Schengen countries, and Greece has also begun to implement the Schengen agreement from1month to1month in 2000. 1996 16 In February, Denmark, Finland and Sweden signed a protocol and agreed to join the Schengen Agreement. Britain and Ireland have not yet joined the Schengen Agreement. 1997 10 the Ayo signed in June integrated the results of the Schengen agreement. 1999 may 1 Ayo came into effect, and the secretariat of the Schengen agreement was formally incorporated into the secretariat of the Council of the European union.
Economic and monetary union
Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is short for Economic and Monetary Union. As early as Article 2 of the Treaty of Rome, the EU proposed to "establish an economic and monetary union". 1969 65438+In February, at the initiative of French President Pompidou, the six founding countries of the European Union held a summit meeting and made a principled decision to establish a European economic and monetary union. 1970 put forward the Werner report and put forward the idea of establishing economic and monetary union in three stages in 10. However, due to the impact of the dollar crisis and the oil crisis in the early 1970s, this effort failed, and countries had to seek other ways of monetary cooperation to reduce the impact of the dollar crisis.
From 65438 to 0989, the special committee headed by Dreulle, President of the European Commission, once again put forward the report of establishing economic and monetary union in three stages, which was called "Dreulle Report". 1The report adopted at the Madrid Summit in June 1989 marked the beginning of the substantive construction of the European Economic and Monetary Union. The first phase of EMU starts from 1 June 65438+July 9901. Its goal is to require member countries to further strengthen coordination on the basis of the European monetary system, abolish national foreign exchange controls, promote capital circulation, and at the same time, all member countries should join the exchange rate mechanism of the European monetary system to reduce exchange rate fluctuations? In the second stage, starting from 10, 0994+65438+65438, the European Monetary Bureau was established in Frankfurt to further coordinate the monetary policies of member countries, strengthen the European Monetary Unit, and determine the unified standards and timetable for joining EMU. In the third stage, at the latest from 10 0999+65438+65438, the currencies of euro zone member countries will be abolished gradually, and the single European currency will be gradually promoted until the economic and monetary union is fully established.
1 99965438+1October1,the third stage of European economic and monetary union officially began, and the euro began to be officially used in banks, foreign exchange transactions and public bonds.
Lisbon Treaty welcomes the opportunity of European integration. 10 year 10 2, Ireland once again held a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty aimed at reforming the EU. In the early morning of the 3rd Beijing time, the counting results showed that the Lisbon Treaty was adopted, which made the process of European integration avoid the possibility of division.
Lisbon Treaty was signed by EU leaders in February 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal. The treaty aims to replace the EU constitutional treaty rejected by France and the Netherlands in 2005, but it still retains the core content of the original treaty, with the main purpose of simplifying EU decision-making procedures, streamlining institutions and deepening EU reform. According to the regulations, the Lisbon Treaty can only take effect after it has been ratified by all EU member states. In order to ensure the smooth adoption of the treaty, the EU has determined that all member States can ratify the treaty through parliamentary approval, and there is no need to hold a referendum that may lead to the rejection of the treaty. Among the 27 member States of the European Union, only one country, Ireland, ratified the Treaty by referendum, so Ireland became the key to the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty.
On June 3rd, 2009, 165438+ 15, Czech President Klaus signed the Lisbon Treaty, becoming the last country among the 27 EU member states to sign the Treaty. After the Czech Republic ratified the Lisbon Treaty, it is expected that the Treaty will come into force on 65438+February 1 day, and the process of European integration will be further promoted. The completion of the ratification procedure of Lisbon Treaty means that the EU will turn a new page.
After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the changes in the organization and operation mechanism of the European Union are mainly reflected in three aspects. First, the previous practice of rotating the presidency as the president of the Council of the European Union was abolished, and a permanent president of the Council of the European Union was established, that is, the "President of the European Union", who would make a public appearance on the international stage on behalf of the European Union. The position has a term of two and a half years, and can be renewed for one term; The second is to merge the two positions of the representative of the European Council in charge of foreign and security policy and the member of the European Commission in charge of foreign relations affairs, and set up a new EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, similar to the Foreign Minister, and expand the authority of this position, especially the financial right to give foreign aid to this position; Third, classify some policy areas that must adopt the principle of unanimous adoption into the field of majority voting system to avoid the embarrassing situation that policies cannot be passed because of opposition from one country and improve the efficiency of the operating mechanism.
Belgian Prime Minister Herman VanRompuy became the first "EU President". Catherine ashton, an Englishman, is the "foreign minister of the European Union". [