Question

Evaluate the effectiveness of the European Union as the most prominent regional organization.

Answer 1

The facts mentioned below make the European Union a highly influential regional organisation:

1. It has its own flag, anthem, founding date and currency.
2. It has a forum of foreign and security policy in its dealings with other nations.
3. The EU is the world’s biggest economy, with a GDP of more than $12 trillion in 2005, slightly larger than that of the United States.
4. Its share of world trade is three times larger than that of the United States. Its economic power gives it influence over its closest neighbours as well as in Asia and Africa.
5. Its role as an important bloc in international economic organisations such as the World Trade Organisation.
6. It has political and diplomatic influence. Two members of the EU-Britain and France are permanent members of the UN Security Council. Some of its members are non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. Its use of diplomacy, economic investments, and negotiations rather than coercion has been more effective in dialogue with China on human rights and environmental degradation.
7. Its military power is the second largest in the world. Britain and France have nuclear arsenals.
8. It is the world’s second-most important source of space and communication technology. Thus, as a supranational organisation, the EU is able to intervene in economic, political, and social areas of the world.