The European Union – Member States, enlargement, contributors and beneficiaries

The Treaties of Rome and Lisbon led to the increase of the political component, in addition to the economic one. Through these, the EU promotes democratic values, civil rights and social modernization. Many other changes to increase the political component are in various stages of debate. Under discussion are measures that would lead to a consolidation of foreign, military, cultural policy, the rule of law – areas in which there are still many inconsistencies. However, because major decisions are taken by consensus, such measures are difficult to take, and the EU remains predominantly an economic union.

The European Union also includes numerous non-European territories, at various stages of integration. The extraterritorial departments of France, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark expand the real map of the European Union on a global scale. If a some of them wish to retain broad forms of autonomy, some have decided to fully integrate into the European space and the EU. East Africa.

European micro-states (Vatican, San Marino, Monaco, Andorra and Lichtenstein) are not part of the EU, but have various agreements with it. The smallest member state of the Union is Malta.

The withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU, at the beginning of 2020, affected the Union’s ability to consolidate the political vector. Also, the succession of crises after 2009 – the financial crisis, the Covid crisis, the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation – affected the possibility of the enlargement of the European Union. During this period, only one member was admitted, Croatia in 2013. Nine other countries are on the waiting list. Turkey started negotiations as early as 2005, Albania in 2020, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova in 2022. Negotiations are also underway with other states from the former Yugoslavia, all of them – including Serbia – being interested in access to the European Union. Also, in the Caucasian area, Georgia has started accession negotiations.

All 27 member states send representatives with full rights to the European Parliament, their number being in relation to the population of each member state. They also appoint representatives to the European Commission and other European institutions. As for the union budget, all states contribute to it and have access to funding programs. But 10 of the states pay more than they receive (net contributor), and 17 receive funding above the value of their own contribution (net beneficiary). The first category includes Germany (with a gap of 21.4 billion euros), France (10.9 billion), the Netherlands (4.1 billion), Sweden (2.5 billion), Denmark (1.5 billion). In the second category, net beneficiary, the biggest differences between the contribution and the amounts received are in Poland (12.9 billion), Greece (4.7 billion), Hungary (4, 3 billion), Romania (4.2 billion) and Spain (3.5 billion). The figures reflect the 2022 budget year.

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