The European Union has its own language that European politicians understand. Inside the 'EU bubble,' there is a variety of terms that sound like alien-speak to the average listener. In this series, we are going to decode these terms one by one, so that you too can understand the EU’s special language—and this will give you a greater understanding of the EU itself." The next term is “CONCENTRIC CIRCLES
This is talking about tiers of EU membership.The idea of the union breaking into smaller tiers is decades old. It started with the enlargement when the union went beyond 12 member nations and increased to 27.
The EU's fourth enlargement in 1995 brought the number of member nations up to 15. The union was only meant to function with 12. So at 15 it started to get too big. And then the next enlargement in 2004 brought 10 more members. By this time, the union could no longer function the way that it was intended to because it was just too big. The decision making was only meant for 12 nations. At this time European architects brainstormed ideas of how to restructure so that the EU could accomplish its aims of European Federalism.
Concentric circles means that the inner core federalize and the outer tiers adopt certain areas of EU legislation.
Understanding these terms is essential to knowing how the EU functions. In this series we will decode these terms one by one. I’m Erika Grey, be sure to hit that
0 Comments