INFODOC
October 1998
WHAT PRACTICAL BENEFITS DOES THE UNION HAVE TO OFFER?
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At the outset, European integration was essentially an economic process. That situation, however, has radically altered in recent years, and today the impact of integration is gradually bringing itself to bear more and more strongly on the lives of Europeans. The state of democracy can be gauged most accurately from the degree to which individuals are actively involved in public affairs. If democracy is to be fostered at the practical level, a clearly defined place has to be accorded to citizens, to enable them to take full advantage of the benefits arising from the European enterprise. It is in their everyday lives that individuals can measure the extent of European integration and consequently make use of the opportunities afforded by economic, social, and democratic policies. |
1. INTRODUCTION
2. EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
3. A COMMON CURRENCY
4. A MORE EFFICIENT EUROPEAN MARKET
5. NEW IMPETUS FOR THE LABOUR MARKET
6. NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
7. MULTIFACETED CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND JUDICIAL COOPERATION
8. MORE EFFECTIVE INFORMATION
1. INTRODUCTION
What specific opportunities can the Union bring to our day-to-day lives?
There is a whole range of possible answers.
Many people consider that the long period of peace brought about by European integration is one of the most valuable objectives to have been attained to date.
In 1950 the founding fathers of the European Economic Community set out in the first place to build a political, geographical, and economic entity, Europe, that would allow peoples to live in lasting peace after enduring the two world wars. We are aware that the peace secured among European countries for more than 40 years is the result of the far-sighted ideas championed by Christian Democrat statesmen such as Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, and Alcide de Gasperi, who paved the way for the successes achieved thus far.
A similar judgement can be passed on completion of the single market in 1992, which, by removing various obstacles and barriers to free movement of persons and goods, marked a step forward for Community integration in keeping with the ideas and ambitions of its founding fathers, opening up a number of practical opportunities for Europeans, not least the introduction of the single currency, aimed at strengthening monetary stability and eventually, and above all, making the common currency an everyday medium of exchange, whose significance, in our opinion, extends far beyond such pecuniary value as it might possess.
2. EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
One of the main innovations to have been created by the Maastricht Treaty and later consolidated by the Treaty of Amsterdam is European citizenship, which, in practice, nationals of any one of the fifteen Member States are automatically qualified to obtain.
Legally speaking, European citizenship (as referred to in Articles 8a to 8e of the Treaty) does not relate to nationality, but rather to the rights and privileges that people enjoy because they are European citizens, entitling them to move, take up residence, and work freely in any Member State.
European citizens in a non-member country may lay claim to the protection of the embassies and consulates of Union Member States when their country of origin is not represented in the country in question.
Citizens can choose to make their home in a Member State other than their country of origin and also have voting rights, because they are permitted to vote and stand as candidates in local and European elections.
In addition, they may, if they so wish, petition the European Parliament (if they consider that European legislation has not been properly or fully enforced) or complain to the European Ombudsman (if they believe a Union institution to be guilty of maladministration).
3. A COMMON CURRENCY
The countdown started on 2 May 1998. In a few months' time, we shall have a single currency and consequently have to turn our habits upside down and learn to count in euro.
Initially, as far as the euro is concerned, individuals will carry on most of their dealings with banks, especially during the transitional period, from 1 January 1999 to 1 July 2002, when national currencies will be legal tender and the euro will be used only as a currency for banking transactions. In these three years people will be able to use both currencies at their discretion when conducting given operations (opening current or savings accounts, making and receiving payments in euro, buying government stocks, receiving payments from government departments, and paying taxes and contributions). Prices will be expressed in two currencies, the local currency and the euro, to enable individuals to familiarise themselves with the new money.
From 1 July 2002, the euro will finally replace national currencies, and therefore, whether in Helsinki or in Rome, in The Hague, Berlin, or wherever, everything will be paid for in euros.
As well as becoming the medium of payment, the euro will also and above all promote stability and prosperity and thus entail many other advantages for Europeans.
The euro will lead to welcome savings. The most immediate and obvious example will result from the fact that no foreign exchange commission will be charged when people travel or effect financial transactions in euro area countries. It will likewise be helpful to be able to compare the prices of and rates for capital and consumer goods and services offered for sale on the European market as a whole.
4. A MORE EFFICIENT EUROPEAN MARKET
Liberalisation of the market will increase Europe-wide transparency and hence have beneficial effects as regards freedom of choice of goods and services, product quality, and going rates.
A vast range of products will, for example, be available to European consumers. The wider choice will apply particularly to standard mass consumer durables and semi-durables such as consumer electronics, household goods, clothing, and the like.
Apart from the advantages, the number of products and the variety of places from which they originate are creating a growing need to protect consumer health and safety, and Community legislation accordingly prohibits producers from marketing dangerous products.
Products today are increasingly being judged in terms of their safety, the quality of the materials used, and ecological requirements. If they are to meet the standards that consumers demand, companies must not only endeavour to withstand competition, but also move into line with stricter European product quality legislation.
Foodstuffs are subject to specific rules harmonising the key requirements relating to labelling, additives, inspection, and health checks. Pharmaceutical preparations have to be approved under an extremely stringent licensing procedure before they can be released on to the market. The fact that toys bear the EC mark guarantees that they have been manufactured in accordance with clear-cut Community rules governing the materials of which they are made and the uses to which they should be put, one example being the rule which stipulates that component or detachable parts of toys intended for children under 3 must be so large that they cannot be swallowed or inhaled.
Tourism will be boosted by the advent of the euro.
Although the obstacles to free movement have not yet been completely eliminated, European citizens are nevertheless finding it easier to travel because border checks have been almost entirely abolished, especially where the Schengen States are concerned.
Once they have been dispensed from the need to change money and pay bank charges, they will undoubtedly be encouraged even more to travel in a Europe using just one currency. In practice, the euro will enable us to save and invest in our own interest as we go in search of new cultures and traditions and different ways of life and consumption patterns.
The Community strategy to set up and expand trans-European transport infrastructure, telecommunications, and energy networks is a matter of fundamental importance. In pursuing this strategy, the Union is aiming to encourage and facilitate interconnection of national networks, thus enabling links to be established with more outlying and island regions, and make the networks more accessible to the public.
In the insurance sector the single market has already entailed significant consequences for individuals. On the one hand, compulsory insurance rates have risen, but this has been offset by expansion in supply. Products have become more varied and comprehensive and increasingly better suited to customer needs. Full market liberalisation and keener competition will also have beneficial repercussions on rates, and more adventurous savers will be able to approach companies in other Member States without using middlemen and compare prices and terms on a Europe-wide basis.
In the era of market globalisation, research and development are central to the Community's ability to assert the international competitiveness of European industry. The object of the fifth research and development framework programme is to maximise the quality of life and establish the best possible scientific and technological preconditions to enable industry to compete at world level.
Community measures are intended first and foremost to promote training and mobility of researchers, foster innovation, and help disseminate and pass on research findings.
Liberalisation will have a substantial impact on businesses.
5. NEW IMPETUS FOR THE LABOUR MARKET
The euro will boost investment and employment because it is underpinned by a sound economic framework designed to contain deficits and stabilise prices. However, many disquieting rumours have been spread about the possible immediate consequences for important matters such as job security and prospects, salaries, and living standards in general.
It is worth pointing out that the single market does not directly affect nominal wages or collective bargaining. In the medium to long term, when wages will be expressed in a single unit of account instead of in national currencies, workers will change their behaviour patterns and frames of reference. To gauge the size of their pay-packets, they will be inclined to compare them with the salaries paid in other Member States.
The gradual completion of an internal market, and hence an integrated labour market, is a historical process that has been under way for some time. When the single market entered into force in 1992, the barriers to free movement of persons, goods, and services were removed, at least in formal terms, implicitly guaranteeing equal opportunities for all European workers. However, it is unquestionably the case that genuine harmonisation can be brought about only through gradual adjustments over a long period of time.
One point often neglected is the need for workers to make a radical change over time in their attitudes, behaviour, and outlook. At individual level, it will become increasingly vital that workers should turn their expertise to account - after completing appropriate training courses - and manage to cope effectively with the growing flexibility and versatility necessitated by the changing labour market.
The fact that there are no restrictions on labour mobility will enable people to follow interconnected series of vocational training courses, since they will have the opportunity to move freely on Community territory.
6. NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
The demand for mobility is increasing constantly, as can be seen from the success of the Community programmes designed to enable students, teachers, researchers, employed or unemployed workers undergoing training, and training instructors to exchange educational and training experiences.
The Union has invested a great deal in education and training in recent years, increasing the opportunities, especially for young people, to acquire experience in institutes and companies in other Member States, either to familiarise themselves with new systems, methods, and activities or to learn other languages.
The programmes fall into three main categories, namely those intended to promote student mobility, vocational training programmes, and youth exchange programmes.
1. SOCRATES encourages Member States to work together in the sphere of school and higher education with a view to fostering language proficiency and improving teachers' skills.
2. Leonardo da Vinci aims to improve initial, continuing, and lifelong vocational training systems and machinery in the Union and raise the standard of vocational training activities, not least through cooperation between universities and industry.
3. Youth for Europe, relating to young people's education, seeks to promote cooperation among youth organisations in different countries by enabling them to meet outside the school and working environment in order to discuss joint cultural or social projects. A special effort is being made to open up the programme more widely to underprivileged youngsters.
However, young people must be encouraged above all to discard old mind-sets, whereby school examinations lead to a degree, which leads to a permanent position, which leads to job security close to home, and inspired to show greater curiosity in getting to know and valuing new cultures, speaking several languages, and understanding fellow European citizens living in other Member States.
Job prospects for the citizens of the 21st century depend on continuous widespread dissemination of knowledge.
7. MULTIFACETED CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND JUDICIAL COOPERATION
The European market seeks to promote and enhance the prestige of the specific identity of each country or region, bringing economic cohesion and solidarity to bear so as to enable the peoples of Europe gradually to attain an equal standard of living.
A European consciousness can be fostered not least through better understanding of others and the discovery of new cultural and social realities. One essential task is to prepare the people of each country for multicultural development founded on solidarity, to promote the different forms of cultural diversity.
The existing Community programmes aim to promote and facilitate contacts among universities, schools, and research institutes in order to pool the combined resources of the southern and northern European peoples. One example is the Euromed programme, in which some 50 universities in Mediterranean countries have joined forces to devise an exchange strategy encompassing cultures, traditions, and customs.
However, although multifaceted diversity needs to be safeguarded where cultures are concerned, it has to be reduced and eventually eliminated in other sectors. A real internal market cannot be completed unless individuals enjoy sufficient legal protection. There are fears that the economy may be disrupted and run into difficulties if the individual rights deriving from the many different legal relations cannot be ascertained and enforced, if need be by legal proceedings.
The EU has accordingly sought to establish concerted judicial practices to make life easier and simpler for the public, bearing in mind the extreme disparities in the laws of the Member States. A number of conventions have been concluded under Article K.3 of the Maastricht Treaty, which has opened up new avenues for judicial cooperation. The most important example is the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters.
The Council has recently decided to extend the scope of the Convention to cover family law (estate settlements, dissolution of marriage, filiation, abduction of children, adoptions, and so forth).
8. MORE EFFECTIVE INFORMATION
Without attempting to discuss the subject exhaustively, it will suffice to say that information can be an unknown quantity to citizens, who often complain that they cannot gain access to European decision-making channels when they wish to receive information or exercise the rights and privileges accorded to them.
Citizens have campaigned to be better informed and, through their representatives in the European Parliament, supported information activities relating to their rights and privileges. In 1996 the Commission and Parliament thus launched the 'Citizens First' programme to carry on a permanent dialogue with citizens and businesses, thereby reaching out to citizens.
Inspired by the information that the success of the programme enabled them to tap, citizens have started to ask for more and ceased to be mere passive recipients of information, preferring instead to take an active part in building the Europe of tomorrow.
A new service, 'Europe online', was therefore launched in July 1998 to provide citizens with a convenient source of more detailed information and advice about the European Union and their rights in connection with the single market. One key feature is that citizens can make their own suggestions and thus help the single market to operate more efficiently.
There are various means of access:
1. The Internet site (httpp://europa.eu.int/citizens), containing the full amount of information set out in the various data sheets, and a three-dimensional system, 'Virtual Europe', which people can explore and use to gather personalised information in 11 languages about their rights and opportunities in the Union. The latter tool is intended especially for libraries, town halls, young people, and other contact points.
2. Telephone helplines in the fifteen Member States, which citizens can use to contact persons with the power to help them overcome the practical problems that they encounter when exercising their rights in the single market.
3. A series of data sheets covering individual walks of life, which set out citizens' rights in each of the fifteen Member States.
4. A databank and a guide to job vacancies (Route map for job-seekers), plus information and advice for persons seeking work outside their home country, supplied through the EURES network and its consultation facilities.
In addition, the various EU and European Parliament offices set up in each Member State have the task of promoting and disseminating information. Citizens can contact these offices to enquire about their rights and privileges, Community programmes, or current or projected Community legislation.
Publisher: Pascal Fontaine
Author: Emma Petroni
Or.: IT
Research and Documentation Service
EPP Group - European Parliament
Rue Wiertz
B-1047 Brussels
