Should Greece leave the European Union, or the Eurozone Essay

Should Greece leave the European Union, or the Eurozone - Essay Example In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler wanted to conquer the whole of Europe. In all these cases, the goal was to control and dominate Europe. For many centuries, wars were fought in Europe for religious and political reasons but with no positive results. After the World War II ended, it became clear that war and violence cannot create a unified Europe. By the end of the war in 1945, there was destruction depicted in all the European cities. Many people lost their homes and families. Production and trade were also crippled as factories were destroyed. Many bridges and railroads were also destroyed by bombings. Many Europeans who lost their homes and means of income were devastated as they became helpless and did not know how to rebuild their lives. It became apparent that the need was to adopt an entirely new kind of strategy and concept to recreate the nation, and guide the Europeans to bring their lives back on normal track. For this, it was required that the European people make a peaceful co mmunity by working together to rebuild their nation. The traditional concepts of capturing and controlling Europe because of rivalries had to be eliminated and had to be replaced by a â€Å"new spirit of cooperation.† This new philosophy of cooperation was remarkably followed in the post WWII era. The two instances were the Marshall Plan and the Berlin Airlift, and these were examples of how the allied nations helped the defeated nations of WWII. This was the beginning of a new phase in the history of Europe, and paved the way for a peaceful unification of Europe. During the WWII, smaller countries like Netherlands and Belgium entered into economical and trade agreements; the idea was that economical unification of smaller countries will make them competitive rivals of larger countries. This concept was already established in 1921 by the governments of Luxemburg and Belgium. In 1948, the Benelux Customs Union was formed which â€Å"enabled the free movement of goods, workers , services, and capital between the countries.† In 1952, six European countries began the phase of forming the European Union (EU). The Benelux treaty was signed in the year 1958 which formally provided free trade facilities to the Benelux countries (Introduction to the European Union, n.d., p.2). This paper focuses on Greece joining the EU in 1981, the economic crisis faced by the country and in the final part it has been discussed whether Greece should or should not continue to remain as an EU member country. Decision-making in the European Commission EU has a standard process of making decisions which is termed as joint decision. This means â€Å"the European Parliament has to approve EU legislation together with the Council based on a proposal from the Commission.† (Decision-making in the European Commission, n.d.) There are three major institutions which participate in decision making process of EU. The first one is the European Commission which looks after the int erests of EU and makes decisions that are in favour of the interests. It also has the responsibility to formulate proposals for any new laws to be established in Europe. It has the additional duty of ensuring that the EU policies are efficiently implemented and also manages the spending of EU funds. The second institution is the Council of the European Union where the ministers representing each EU country assemble to generate new laws and implement policies. It also approves the annual budget of EU and has signing authority on any agreements between and other countries. The third and final institution is the European Parliament which is a body of members elected by citizens of each EU country which it is a representative body of the countries’ common people. The European Parlia