THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION IN FOSTERING PEACE AND SECURITY AMONG MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) 1993-2016
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
    This essay examines the contributions of the European Union in fostering peace and security among member states of the European Union. It also investigates the impact of the organization in promoting the economic well-being of member states. It also discusses the implication of security development for not only the region directly, but for the international community.
The European Union (EU), as it stands to day, is a regional organization unlike any other in the world. It has for better or worse, been able to provide its citizens with economic and security stability for over half a century1. At the heart of this union lies an alliance between France and Germany, which many would have deemed impossible not long ago. The past 50 years, however, have transferred the union into a more integrated region whose goal has become that of furthering stability and democracy within the European continent.
    The fall of the Berlin War in 1981 and the reunification of Germany started the ball rolling for a new series of Eastern European countries to join the union. Current members of the union welcomed the fall of communion with great enthusiasm and looked forward to a larger re-unification of Europe. The initial enthusiasm, however, was slowly tamed by institutional and security concern that reflected both fear that activities of  other continents at once would threaten so significantly disrupt the economic integration of the European Union any the fear that the Eastern European economics were developing the slowly to integrate smoothly into the larger European society. The adoption of the single currency and the growth and stability pact has created a new challenge for future securities, making the preparation process more wearisome and inevitably longer.
    Europe has never been so prosperous, so secure nor so free. The violence of the first half of the 20th century has given way to a period of peace and security stability unprecedented in European history. The creation to this development. It has transformed the relations between European states and her citizens. European countries are committed to dealing peacefully with disputes and to cooperating through common institutions. Over this period, the progressive spread of the rule of law and democracy has been authoritarian regimes change into secure, stable and dynamic democracies. Successive enlargements are making a reality of the vision of a united and peaceful continent. No single country has is able to tackle today’s complex problems on its own. The United States has played a critical role in European integration and European security, in particular through NATO.
Europe still faces security threats and challenges. The outbreak of conflict in the Balkans was a reminder that war has not disappeared from the European continent, and as such, the need for security becomes pertinent among the European states to units for collective security through the European Union.
    Over the east decade, no region of the world has been untouched by armed conflict. Most of these conflicts have been within rather than between states, and most of the victims have been civilians. As a union of 28 states, with over 500 million people producing a quarter of the world’s Gross National Product (GNP), and with a wide ranges of instruments a global player2. In the last decade, European forces have been deployed abroad to places as distant as Afghanistan, East Timor and the DRC. The increasing convergence of European interests any the strengthening of mutual solidarity of the EU makes Europeans more effective actors in the world security.
Aims and Objective of the Study
    This research analyses:
1.    The organizational structure of the European Union.
2.    The role of the European Union in providing international peace and security.
3.    To examine the economic integration of the union.
4.    To afford a proper assessment of the international economic and security system of the European and.
5.    To examine the implications of the economic and security developments on European neighbouring countries, and measure taken and put in place to contain them amidst problems and challenges.
Scope of the Study
    The scope of the study shall cover the periods between 1993, that is, when the European Union (EU) was established, and presently 2016. It shall attempt to tough in passing relevant events that have occurred between 1993 to date. On the whole, it is the intention here to take bearing from the internal security activities of the EU member states and the international securities of its neighbouring states. In similar lane, this study shall touch on the implications and or the relationship between the European Union’s activities and the NATO, since its emergence. This will be in a passive sense since European Union, as a regional organization, has virtually its members as members of the United Nations.
Methodology
    This study utilizes the historical framework of scholars of international relations. Part of this work is written in narrative form to accord a deeper understanding of the historical implications of the topic or study. Otherwise, the study is analytical and draws materials from library sources, as well as secondary sources, such as comments, newspapers, magazines, books by different authors from journals, articles and online materials.
In all, this research is limited mostly by online materials because the European Union (EU) as a regional organization, is in Europe and most of its activities which this study covers are updates from online.
Literature Review
    According to Anca Pussa in his book “European Union: Challenges and promises of a new enlargement3, regional organization are often hampered by international unwillingness to take charge, furthermore, they attempt to structure external stimuli in a way to making them compatible with their own international reasoning. Yet, challenges to security and economic policy alike, such as state fragility, natural disasters and post-conflict reconstruction, are likely to respect any institutional boundary or delimitation of competences. Thus, actors in international relations and global developments in general and the European Union (EU) in particular are constantly compelled to find new ways in order to increase inter-institutional, as well as infra-institutional collaboration and to provide effective policy responses.
    In the words of Snokpeka S.A.4.. The European Union developed out of the initial step taken by six West European countries, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands is establishing three communities with the aim of gradually integrating their economies and moving towards political unity. These three communities were the European coal and steel community (ECSC) the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC OR EURATIOM). On July 1st 1967, these three communities, though legally separated under their constituent treaties merged their three executives and councils in one commission of the European Community (EC) under a single treaty.
    The economic integration of Europe which was the objective of the founding six nations of the above communities were reflected in the emergence of EC in July 1967. From the very onset also the founding six also had the aim of develop the European community into a political nation. The intention was transformed to action in February 7, 1992, when the treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) was signed and when it came into force on November 1, 1993. This political union was discernable from its provisions which called for monetary integration, the co-ordination of social policies and other steps to increase economic integration.
    Economy and security are intrinsically linked and mutually reinforcing. The economic securities bridge has two dimensions: First, a politico-legal one as its suggests that there is need for sustained efforts to further improve coordinating coherence between distinct, but inter-locking policy areas. Second, it exposes a time dimension for there is need to marshal instruments that build bridges between securities or humanitarian interventions and long-term economic programmes. By all means, current debates on the new interfaces between security and economy have for more strongly emphasized “convergence in conceptual and practical policy terms.
    According to Kuijper P.J., in his book titled “The law of EU external relations”, the European Union has positioned itself as a proponent of the “bridges” rather than the “gap” approach to foreign and developmental policies on security3. Being associated to the EU’s common foreign  and security policy (CFSP) ever since the Maastricht Treaty, the European commission, for instance, has been constantly pressing for an improved coordination between external relations. The commission has made an effort to frame the EC instrument for stability (IFS), or alternatively, the “security instrument” as the community’s flag-ship-like instrument whose main purpose is to address the internal and external security activities. Since January 2007, the IFS has been providing financial assistance to countries in situations of emerging crisis. consequently, it also is the key instrument for sustaining economy and security development. In terms of its objectives, the IFS is three pronged and distinguishes between a short term from a long term component. First, I situation of (emerging) crisis, it seeks to help to stability by providing an effective response to help preserve, establish or reestablish the conditions essential to the proper implementation of the community’s development and cooperation policies.
    According to Gangle Stefan, in his book titled: Coping with the security-development; the European Union aims, in the context of stable conditions for the implementation of community cooperation policies in partner countries to contribute towards building the capacity to address specific global and trans-regional threats with a view of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and trafficking, terrorism and organized crime.
    According to Goldstein S. Joshua, in his book titled “International Relations”, security has been constructed in terms of an intergovernmental paradigm and firmly anchored in the field of European political cooperation (EPC) since the early 1970, economic policy in term, has evolved as a shared competence of both the EU institutions and its member states and thus, patterns of mix governance involving supranational and intergovernmental features6.
    In order to better understand the mixed governance, it is worthwhile to look at the place of security and economic  policy within the history of European integration.
 Endnotes
1.    Goldstein, S. Joshua, International Relations 8th Edition, 2008-2009 Update, American University, Washington, DC. 2004, p.2.
2.    Ibid, p.4
3.    Anca Pussa , European Union: Challeges and promises of a New Enlargement, the international Debate Education Association. Press 2004, p.10.
4.    Shokpeka S.A. History of International Organisation, Benin, 2002,, (ed) Omu F.A and Otoide Leo: Themes in International Studies & Diplomacy: p.318.  
5.    Kuiper P.J. “The Law of EU External Relations, cases, Materials and commentary on the EU as an International Legal Actor. Oxford University, Oxford, 2013, pp. 219.
6.    Gangle Stefan, Coping with the security. Development Nexus: The European Community’s Instrument for Stability – Rational and Potential, 2nd edition, Palgrave, 2014, p.12.