Europe... Questions and Answers [antikvár]

I he EU means many things to many people. For somé it has been at the core of efforts to help maintain peace over the past 50 years in a continent which in the past has been riven by rivalry and suspicion. Others, however, talk of its political impotency. Why, they wonder, as a supposed political unión, has it not been able to intervene effectively in the former Yugoslavia? For many the EU is primarily about the single markét and the opportunities and benefits this presents to businesses, students, pensioners and holidaymakers. A number of people feel that it is becoming increasingly difficult to see the wood through the trees. They look back and ask whether the EU's current responsibilities really are fulfilling the visions of its founders, or whether those visions have themselves become lost in the ambiguities of post cold-war Europe? A fair question would be: What exactly is the EU for now? Likewise, you may want to know how the EU benefits you directly, in practical terms. The EU's institutions are inundated daily with enquiries by people hoping to get to the root of many such questions. This booklet, in a series of several, seeks to give brief but concise answers to the most frequent of these questions. Ultimately, the EU is more than just the sum of its parts. Its Member States created it to help solve problems that cannot now be effectively tackled by countries acting alone. The point is that the EU offers opportunities, not restrictions.