“The Community shall have as its task. By establishing a common market and progressively approximating the economic policies of Member States, to promote throughout the Community a harmonious development of economic activities, a continuous and balanced expansion, an increase in stability, an accelerated raising of the standard of living and closer relations between the States belonging to it”

A major impact on Britain was the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, which dramatically increase

Figures suggest that between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 jobs in the UK depend on European Community membership. As the European community membership is now populated with over 338 million people, there are obvious benefits to being in this massive marketplace, so there is not really a question of Britain not obeying the laws and rules set by the EU, as this could result in Britain being kicked out of the Community, which would be potentially disastrous.

The EU is useful in enforcing laws that although, currently existed in countries, weren’t being upheld. For example, the British Government were pretty lax about ‘GM’ free’ food that contained traces of GM ingredients, but the European Court has come down hard on companies that are neglecting these laws in case precedents that are being made.

It is sometimes easy to make the mistake of thinking that laws passed in the UK because of intervention from the EU, would not exist if we were not a member state. However, many of the EU legislatives are just reflections of what is happening around the world anyway, and is likely that Britain would have produced similar rules regardless. For example, the European Court of Human Rights was introduced to promote equality and humanity, yet this was a snowball already in action. Articles ensuring equal rights for people over issues such as race, gender and age had already been formed before Britain’s entry to the EEC, and were being mirrored by the UK’s biggest ally, America. I am sure that a multi-cultural, developed country, such is Britain, that it would have naturally came up with analogous laws to safeguard peoples rights. However, some would argue that it would not have developed as far as it has now, and not as thoroughly without European intervention. E.g. Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome instructs that each member state must ensure that each member state must ensure that men and women receive equal pay for equal work. The UK has now enshrined these provisions into national law, but it is likely that it would have been introduced anyway.

In relation to this, there is a current debate raging over obesity and how to tackle it. T

Some topics in this essay:
Bank Nigeria, European Community, EEC Treaty, Treaty Rome, Human Rights, European Court, ECSC Treaty, Maastricht Treaty, European Union, Rail Bridge’, british law, international law, laws passed, superior court, eu law, european community, judgement superior court, treaty rome, tobacco industry, eu laws, british laws, european community membership,