European Union
The European Union is an organization of European countries which have joint policies on matters such as trade, agriculture, and finance, but on the other hand, at a more everyday level, the European Union is like a class full of students who work together to achieve their goals and help each other during hardships. All students, like the members of the EU, are very different but they still manage to stick together. So, as members of the EU and members of the class we worked together to achieve this article.
Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 2004. I do not remember the time before that. So I have no personal experience to tell the difference between everyday life being and not being a member of the EU. However, I have several examples how the European Union influences my everyday life.
The European Union in my everyday life
Estonia has been a member of the European Union since 2004. I do not remember the time before that. So I have no personal experience to tell the difference between everyday life being and not being a member of the EU. However, I have several examples how the European Union influences my everyday life.
Firstly, a great advantage of being in the EU is being a part of the Schengen Area. That allows Estonians to travel visa-free in 25 different European countries. For me, the opportunity is highly important as my father lives and works in Germany.
Travelling visa-free is comfortable and fast and allows me to visit my father more often. Thanks to the Schengen Agreement it is also possible to discover lots of different cultures without having to deal with tedious paperwork. I have used that opportunity frequently and it is easy to forget that travelling didn’t use to be that easy, especially in Soviet times. Secondly, thanks to the European Union membership it is much easier to go abroad as an exchange student. Many of my friends dream of studying abroad and in the European Union there are practically no obstacles for that dream to come true. Having studied in a foreign university there are also more opportunities to find yourself a suitable job. Although I am not sure yet what my plans for the future will be, it is good to know that there are lots of different possibilities and I’m not bounded with only three or four options. I think that being in the European Union has helped Estonia to become an economically and politically successful country. It has considerably contributed to the comfort of my everyday life and hopefully continues to do that in the future.
Poland
When Poland joined the EU in 2004, it was an important step forward for our economy. Although many people considered it a great change for the country, not everyone was happy. Some thought it might be a bad idea because prices could increasingly rise. Looking back at it today, we can say that the concerns weren’t justified. We are exposed to the impact of the EU every day and it often helps with financial issues. Thanks to that, our roads are in better condition and schools are invested in. We have international exchanges and innovative teaching tools like interactive boards.
Being in the EU gave us access to Schengen zone which is an area where we can easily travel. People go to other countries for work, adventures or visiting friends or family. Every citizen, who gets Schengen visa can cross borders of countries, which are in the EU and also some which aren’t, without any formalities.
Despite the fact that many young people don’t know everything about the EU, they still think it is a great and strong organisation.
It brings people together and helps them, when they need it.
Being in the EU is great in many different ways. It gives us so many opportunities that we wouldn’t have without it.
A short interview with my school friend.
What does the EU mean?
The EU stands for the European Union and contains 28 member countries.
What are advantages of beingin the EU?•
People can travel freely throughout the Union• environment standards are set for all• education is for everyone• clean tap water.
Where would you like to travel to?
As a student from Germany and a person who loves to travel a lot I would like to go everywhere. But this year I’m going toItaly in summer.
What’s your school life like?
My day begins at 06:30 AM. School starts at 08:00 AM. In general we have 25 students in class. Our marks are made out of50% by tests and 50% by participation in class. My school day ends at 3 or 4 PM.
What do you do after school?
On Mondays or Tuesdays I go to the library with a friend to study. On Wednesdays I always go to our local youth club and dance with my dance group (GMix).
What do people think about the European Union?
Spanish people of all ages answered a questionnaire what they think of the EU, and here are the questions and the conclusions we drew:
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word European Union?
Most people thought about the union of some countries of Europe and the benefits that this union brings to us. A few people mentioned the origin of that union and, finally, they talked about the corruption and the refugees.
What are the most important benefits that EU offers to us?
We observed that there are different answers but most respondents said that the EU provides us with economic and social benefits. It could be because the richest countries of EU give money to the poorest ones. They also said that makes it easier to travel around the EU, and learning a lot of different cultures and history of the different countries was a very important benefit, too.
36,5% – Economic benefits
28,4% – Benefits about travelling
12,2% – Social benefits
10,8% – Benefits of cultural diversity
12,1% – Other answers everywhere.
What would you change of the European Union?
The people had different opinions about this question but almost everyone said that they would change the political system, change the presidents like Rajoy and help Catalonia get independent. Also they would change the decisions about immigrants.Tthey would help them to have a better life and a world without wars. Some people believe that the EU doesn’t respect human rights and this is a problem they want to change.
Where is the European Union more reflected in: music, television or movies?
43,2% – The television area17,6% – The cinematographic area10,8% – The musical area17,6% – Isn’t reflected in any area. After reading all the answers about all the questions, we arrived at the following conclusion.
Italy towards Europe
Pills of history: Italy is one of the founding members of Europe, born in 1957 with the Treaty of Rome and at that time was called EEC (European Economic Community). It was only an economical union among the members that after more or less 40 years improved in a political union too.Due to the fact that Italy is a foundin member we do not feel so much differences, it is quite normal for us being part of Europe but we know that there are a lot of advantages. Not only for travelling but also speaking about institutions or political aspects. Schools receive funds from the European Community which allows them to renovate buildings or give the possibility to take part in some Erasmus+ projects, like Yeurope.
Since we are still teenagers we really do not feel the negative sides of Europe which mainly concern economy and financial difficulties.
What is Europe for us? It means several opportunities, especially for students. Thanks to European Communities we can travel in Schengen Area only with our Identity Card and have many experiences, for example, the Interrail.
Do you know what it is? Well, in a few words it is a ticket that allows you to travel by train in all European countries without doing all the checks. This summer European Communities will give some free tickets to a number of students, just to let you know about that!
It could be a paradox that European students travel without any obstacles while migrants who really need to be hosted are just accommodated in poor buildings because Europe does so little for them.
Italy has welcomed about 180 thousand people in 2016 and the number is increasing every year. The aim is to arrive in the North Europe but they are forced to stay in Italy, where the economical situation isn’t the best, mostly because some countries have closed the borders for them.
After the hecatomb of migrants of October 2013 Europe decided to face immigration in other ways. This year the Dublin agreement which claimed that the migrants receive political asylum in the countries where they arrive, was also modified. In 2015 a naval barrier was created in order to make it difficult for migrants to get to Europe. But they managed to find other ways to achieve their goals.
So in 2015 it was proposed to distribute migrants among European countries, however, many of them opposed this idea and so they decided to directly attack the immigrant traffickers in Libya. In this way it was mostly looked as a colonial war and no longer a way to stop the migrants to get to Europe. Nowadays the situation is different because the wars have ended but still different countries oppose the equal distribution of immigrants.
Why do they move from their countries to Europe?
The economic prosperity and the political stability in Europe seem to have attracted immigrants coming from Asia and Africa. As an Eurostat statistical document (expired in 2016) shows, in 20154,7 millions of people have immigrated to an European country whereas almost 2,8millions of people have emigrated from an European country. Germany counted the greatest amount of immigrants. These statistics explain that Europe is seen by immigrants as a place where there are more opportunities of work and a better life.
The area where most immigrants cross the border line of the European continent is the Balkan area. It has been considered a gate to Europe for millenniums. In fact, civilizations and folks passed over there many times in the history in order to conquer the Oriental lands. However nowadays it is not so easy to cross the frontier as it was in the past because of many political conflicts and the increased border controls that Balkan countries such us Greece and Bulgaria acted. As the Balkan lands are a point of entry to Europe, the Mediterranean Sea is the other for migrants coming from Africa. This is instead a more recent event. During the last years it has been an increasing occurrence as the Sicily Channel has become the place where many migrants crossing the channel on clandestine unsafe boats have found untimely death.
As an Italian important newspaper, Il sole24 ore said “Europe has populated the world during the past centuries, today the world is populating Europe”. It is a real fact which cannot be dealt with weapons and wars. The newspaper went on saying that the current migration crisis is fed by the wars in Middle East countries. The European population is old whereas the Asian and African ones are young and are doubling up even faster. Once, European migrants in Argentina and USA used tosend only one member of the family and through letters and news , the other members of the family would get to the place.
Nowadays the migration functions in the same way but faster thanks also to new technologies and faster ways of communication such us social media, SMS and other new messaging systems.
However, the immigrants have to accept the “European values”, values not so easy to get used to by people coming from more conservative countries and with a different religion. In fact, Europe is evolving even faster and it would not be easy to keep up for most of the migrants.
If this situation can be better managed in the future, will depend not only on the politicians but also on European citizens who should welcome foreigners hoping for a better life and safety from wars and persecutions.
Another way to make the situation better is to change the Dublin agreement, improving this way the allocation of migrants among European countries or intensify the funds given to the shelters in the countries which overlook the Mediterranean Sea and which receive the biggest number of migrants.