The European Union

Once the scene of frequent and bloody wars, at the end of the twentieth century, the world bore witness to an extraordinary event on the European continent: the creation of the European Union at the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992. Since the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952, the European Union has grown to 25 nations with plans for enlargement in the near term, built a common economy with 12 countries assuming the new common currency, the euro, and achieved a new supranational1 government through the concession of state sovereignty. The EU is considerably larger in population and roughly equal in economic size, trade and political influence in multilateral institutions, such as the World Trade Organization and International Monetary Fund. Moreover, while the French and Dutch failed to ratify the Constitutional Treaty by national referendum in the summer of 2005, this document will likely serve as the point of departure for future efforts of European leaders to realize Winston Churchill's dream of a "United States of Europe." In summary, the EU is the closest thing to an equal the United States faces at the beginning of the twenty-first century,2 but is the EU a new rival to US global power?