European Union: History, Institutions, and Canary Islands Integration
European Union: A Historical Overview
1951: European Community of Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). Sector regulated by member countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, and Netherlands).
1957: Treaty of Rome. EEC is created.
1973: Incorporates Denmark, Ireland, and the UK.
1981: Greece, Portugal, and Spain signed the Single European Act, agreeing to free circulation of persons, goods, and services.
1992: Maastricht Treaty establishing the EU.
1995: Finland, Sweden, and Austria join.
1999: The Euro appears, Eurozone includes 16 countries.
2004: Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus, and Lithuania join. Today the EU is comprised of 27 countries.
EU’s Five Main Institutions
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European Parliament: 786 MEPs are elected by universal suffrage.
- Competence: Reviews and comments on the proposals of the commission and council, exercises supervisory power over the European Commission, shares power with the council voting on the annual budget, based in Strasbourg, France.
- European Commission: EU executive body with three competencies: initiative of EU policy, control of the application of law, and international bargaining power, based in Brussels, Belgium.
- Council of the EU: Legislative body, functions include coordination of economic policies of member countries and responsibility for foreign affairs, based in Brussels, Belgium.
- Court of Justice: Ensures compliance with Community law by member states, based in Luxembourg. Integrated with one judge from each member state.
- Court of Auditors: Checks the legality and regularity of income and expenses, based in Luxembourg.
Other Agencies and Symbols
- Other agencies: Ombudsman, European Central Bank, the Economic and Social Committee
- Symbols:
- Flag: twelve golden stars on a blue background
- Theme: United in diversity
- May 9: Europe Day
- European Constitution: October 29, 2004
Integration of Spain
1 January 1986: Spain integrates into the EU.
Measures: Industrial reconversion, control of inflation, and reduced public deficit. Unemployment exceeds 15%. The EU intended to help Spain. In 2004, comprising ten countries, and reduce aid.
Integration of the Canary Islands
1989: Parliament approves adhesion model that assumed in the policy decision Agrar and fisheries, trade and customs legislation of the community as outermost regions benefits from POSEICAN. It has a specific Economic and Fiscal Regime (REF) replaces the VAT by the tax.
Outermost regions: Geographically distant territories have special treatment under the treaty of Amsterdam.
Canary Islands Political Transition
Three questions: Debate on the economic model, decolonization of Western Sahara was the economic and demographic impact, the maximum exponent Canarian nationalism Union del Pueblo Canario.
1978: Approves pre-autonomous system began to be discussed draft statutes of autonomy, establishing the board of Canary led by UCD consists of one representative from each chapter and twenty-eight members elected by elected members.
Autonomy
1982: Creates the Autonomous Community of Canary 10 August 1982 with administrative powers but not politically. See shared by the two provincial capitals. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Higher Regional Court of Santa Cruz Islands and the Canaries parliament. Statute renovated in 1996 and 2006.
Key Institutions in the Canary Islands
- Hearing accounts: Economic, financial, and public sector accounting, based in Tenerife.
- Canary Advisory Council: Ensuring conformity with the Constitution and statute of autonomy of the Bills headquarters in La Laguna.
- Member of communism: Ombudsman people, based in The Palm.
- Parliament: Organ representing the people and consists of sixty deputies.
First Choice: May 8, 1983 PSOE wins, Jeronimo Saavedra Acevedo.