Eurozone and European Union

WHAT IS EUROZONE ?

• The eurozone an economic and monetary union (EMU) of 17 European Union (EU) member states that have adopted the euro(€) as their common currency and sole legal tender.
• The eurozone currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia,  Finland,  France, Germany, Greece,  Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,  Malta, the Netherlands,  Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain.
• Most other EU states are obliged to join once they meet the criteria to do so. No state has left and there are no provisions to do so or to be expelled.

·        It is officially called as the EUROAREA

 WHAT IS EUROPEAN UNION ?

• The European Union (EU)  is an economic and political union or confederationof 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe.
• The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community(EEC), formed by six countries in 1958.
• In the intervening years the EU has grown in size by the accession of new member states, and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit.
• The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993.
• The latest amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, theTreaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009.

WHAT IS THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ?

• The European Parliament (abbreviated as Europarl or theEP) is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU).
• Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council) and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world.
• The Parliament is currently composed of 754 Members of the European Parliament, who serve the second largest democratic electorate in the world (after India) and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world (375 million eligible voters in 2009).
• It has been directly elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979.
• Although the European Parliament has legislative power that such bodies as those above do not possess, it does not formally possess legislative initiative, as most state parliaments within the Union do.

WHAT IS SIX PACK ?

• The EU economic governance Sixpack describes a set of European legislative measures to reform the Stability and Growth Pact and to introduce new macroeconomic surveillance.
• These measures were bundled into a "six pack" in negotiations between the European Council and European Parliament.
• They aim at strengthening the procedures to reduce public deficits and address macroeconomic imbalances.

WHAT IS THE EUROPLUS PACT ?

• The Euro-Plus Pact, also initially called the Competitiveness Pact or later the Pact for the Euro,is a 2011 plan in which themember states of the European Union make concrete commitments to a list of political reforms which are intended to improve the fiscal strength and competitiveness of each country.
• The plan was advocated by the French and German governments for more widespread adoption by other Eurozone countries.
• As such it is designed as a more stringent successor to the Stability and Growth Pact, which has not been implemented consistently.
• The pact has been controversial not only because of the closed way in which it was developed but also for the goals that it postulates.
• It was adopted in March 2011 and uses the EU's Open Method of Coordination.

WHAT IS TREATY OF LISBON ?

• The Treaty of Lisbon or Lisbon Treaty (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU).
• The Lisbon Treaty was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009.
• It amends the Treaty on European Union (TEU; also known as the Maastricht Treaty) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC; also known as the Treaty of Rome).
• In this process, the Rome Treaty was renamed to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

It is important to get the differences between Europe, the European Union (EU), the Euro, and Eurozone.