In the modern world the European Union commands a formidable and significant portion of the international market. A country that would be interested in sharing a significant portion of the international market should deem it important to join the European Union. The economical integration of the European Union is very advantageous to many countries that are in the vast European region. A country being included means that it enters the single market in the European and this means that it will trade with other rich nations in the European continent and also increase its exports to the rich nations. The country will also benefit from the free movement of capital withing the Union and this increases the countries foreign direct investment in their countries. The common economical policies will also help the country in ensuring that it benefits from the Union in such ways as agricultural policies and industrial policies where the country stands the chance of being funded by the Union to run its industries and agricultural sector. The country will also benefit from the reduced volatility of the exchange rates. The main advantage of entering into the Union is ensuring that the country will integrate more with the Western European countries which will see to it that the country will have the benefit of raising the standard of living of its citizens and also the country being offered a platform for a long term economical growth.
Hindrances to country joining the European Union
The European Union requires that for a country to be a member, the country needs to make some economic reforms that will adhere to the Union’s requirements. To many countries this is not acceptable because some of the reforms could be very costly for the country. This means that the country would have to leave behind many economic structures of the country. This means that the country would have to suffer economically before fully integrating the Union’s reform and hence many countries have shied away from joining the European Union. Some of the reforms that they require are to change the currency from the national currency to the Euro and this is not acceptable to many countries. Many economies in the European continent have been stabilized by the current currency they have and a good example is Bulgaria. This have limited the number of countries that can join the European Union.
Cultural diversity problems in the European Union
Presently the European Union have been culturally unified on various fronts which include sports, politics, citizenship, language and education. However, it is important to note that the European Union members have a huge similarity in terms of the above cultural aspects especially the Western European countries. A problem may arise when some of the Eastern European countries enters the scene and this may be very visible in the politics because many of the Eastern European countries do not have the same political ideologies as the Western European countries. This can be felt by the fact that at the end of the Second World War many Eastern European countries assumed the ideology of communism while the Western Countries assumed the ideology of democracy. However, there are mechanisms in place which are facilitated to avoid such scenarios and this have been enacted so as to avoid any political problems that may arise in the future.