The original Rome of Treaty quite clearly provided for the creation of a common market.
· Called for the elimination o internal trade barriers
· Provided for the creation of a common external tariff
· Required the member states to abolish obstacles to the free movement of factors. In order to facilitate this free movement of goods, services and factors of production
· Provided for any necessary harmonization of member state laws
The Treaty of Rome is one of the treaties that forms the Community of European Member Sates known today as the EU. The main objective of the original Treaty was to achieve a single integrated market possessing the following features:
· Free movement between Member States of goods, unimpeded by customs duties and quantitative restrictions;
· Free movement of labor;
· Free movement of services;
· Free movement of capital;
· Trade protection where appropriate against non-Member countries by way of a common external tariff, ie a customs barrier, so that the same duty would be levied on goods coming into the Community regardless of which Member State imported the.
In 1957 the governments of France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg signed the Rome Treaty. In so doing they agreed to create what came to be known as the Common Market or, more accurately, the European Economic Community. That institution has remained the movement towards closer union and economic integration in Europe. It was course accompanied by the creation of Euratom and had indeed been preceded by the European Coal and Steel Community of 1951. *
STAGES OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
· There are stages which brought impact to the development of EEC. These stages came to existence after Treaty of Rome.
Economic integration can take various forms and these can be ranged in a spectrum in which the degree of involvement of the participating economies, one with another, becomes greater and greater.
2. The next stage is Customs Union. Here tariffs and quotas on trade between members are also removed but in addition the members agree to apply a common level of duty on goods entering the union from without. The latter is called the common customs, or common external, tariff.
3. Next come the Common Market which is only one Common Market in the world belong to EU. Single Market is known as Common Market too, it has freedom in following;
· Freedom of Labor
· Freedom of Capital
· Freedom of Persons
· Freedom of Goods
And this technical term implies that to the free movement of goods within the customs union is added the free movement of the factors of production-labor, capital and enterprise.
4. Finally there is the economic union. This is a common market in which there is also a complete unification of monetary and fiscal policy. There would be a common currency which would be controlled by a central authority and in effect the member states would become regions within union. Euro is the official currency of EU. This stage is the further step in their stages for time being. EU has aim to include Political Union which is lies behind all these stages. However, for this time is not achievable. Once they gain it will carry a character of Federation of EU.
The Single European Act 1986
The Single European Act was a document signed in 1986 by the heads of state and later ratified by the parliaments of all Member States. It made the first post-signature amendments to the Treaty of Rome. The complete Act came into force in July 1987, although some sections took effect earlier. It was enacted in the UK in the European Communities Act 1986.
The SEA aimed to provide impetus towards achieving the objectives of the original EC treaties, which were;
· To transform the relations between Member States into a real European Union;
· To achieve a common foreign policy;
· To promote democracy;
· To speak with one voice;
· To protect the EC’s freedoms and human rights;
· To extend common policies;
· To facilitate the Commission’s exercise of its powers;
· To work towards economic integration via Economic and Monetary Union (EMU);
· To work towards the protection of the general and working environment.
Besides providing for speeding up the legislative process by introducing qualified majority voting, the SEA set out the common intention that the EC shall have as its objective to contribute together to making concrete progress towards European Union. *
Maastricht Treaty (Treaty on European Union)
The Treaty on European Union (TEU) 1992 was for many the logical progression from the completed Internal Market. This Treaty (known as Maastricht Agreement) marked a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, where decisions are taken as closely as possible to citizens. The TEU concerned institutional reform and political union, together with the necessary amendments to the Rome Treaty, extending majority voting and strengthening the European Parliament. It incorporated the principle of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), including issue of the single European currency and provisions relating to security.
Aims of TEU;
· the promotion of an international identity leading possibly to a common defense policy
· the establishment of a single currency in the context of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
· reinforcement of environmental protection
· a fund to promote cohesion in the context of economic and social progress, including improvement in the quality of life
· the establishment of common citizenship
*(The Treaty of Rome, Single European Act and Maastricht, Sixth edition of EC/EU fact book Alex Roney p. 14)
· the facilitation of free movement of people, not forgetting their safety and security **
RELATION OF TURKEY AND EU
Firstly, I want to say that EU has some other official candidates which is Croatia. It hopes to join in 2009. Also, Republic of Macedonia has been given official candidate status as of December 2005 under the name "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia".
Turkey and EU relations can be dated back as far as 1959, when Turkey applied for an association with the European Commission, thus on year after the enforcement of the Treaty of Rome. Turkey is an official candidate to join the European Union. The Ankara Agreement which was signed in 1963. Additional protocol was also signed in 1970 which underlined two main documents. The first time was to ensure future Turkey’s Custom Union with EU, whiles the second was to find modalities to ensure Turkey’s full membership with the EU. It must be noted that Turkey’s long term dream of having Customs Union with the EU became a reality on 1st January.1996. In spite of the fact that Turkey is the only country to have reached such an advanced stage with the EU without necessary becoming full member it took then 32 years. This delay was mainly due to;
· The huge economical gap existing between Turkey and the EU at that time
· Also because of Turkey’s military intervention with Greece between 1960 and 1980s.
According to the Article 24 of the GATT, Turkey now can import and export goods to and from EU without any restriction. However, Turkey should also apply the union’s common trade policy in dealing with other countries outside the EU. For the time been, the Customs Union covers only industrial and processed agricultural products, plans are, however, in advance to add traditional Agricultural products pending Turkey’s adaptation to the EU’s Common Agricultural policy.
Turkey-EU association relations that guided Turkey’s foreign economic and commercial relations were culminated with the establishment of the Customs Union. The completion of the Customs Union is the most important development effecting Turkish economy since adoption of liberalization measures by the 1980s. The Customs Union with the EU is the most comprehensive element that contributes to strengthening Turkey’s expanding role as a business partner.
An important feature of the Turkey-EU Customs Union is that Turkey is the first and only country to enter into such an advanced form of economic integration without being a full member. As it is a unique case for the EU, there are several issues other than tariff reductions where Turkey and the EU agree to cooperate.
Turkey started preliminary negotiations on 3 October 2005. However, analysts believe 2015 is the earliest date the country can join the union due to the plethora of economic and social reforms it has to complete. Since it has been granted official candidate status, Turkey has implemented permanent policies on human rights, abolished the death penalty, granted cultural rights to its large Kurdish minority, and taken positive steps to solve the Cyprus question. However, due to its religious and cultural differences, Turkey faces strong opposition from governments of some member states, including France, Germany, Austria and Cyprus. The Greek government has supported in principle the Turkish candidacy, while in practice linking its progress with the resolution of the long standing Cyprus dispute. Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, also opposes Turkey becoming a member state because of its predominantly Muslim population. *
