I needed to make a short presentation as part of my studies about benefits of France being in European union. As part of putting my thoughts together, I decided to write this article about benefits of France being in European union and maybe help someone else in the world that is looking for information about this topic, because I know there are almost none available on the internet and I had a lot of trouble looking for some info.
Let’s start on the beginning. It all started in 1957 when Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, Italy and Germany made EEC (European Economic Community). Now why did they do this? And here we are, starting our research on benefits of France being in EU. Not many people know the real reason, why EEC was created. It was not so much of an economic benefits as it was for the purpose of keeping peace in Europe. We all know France and Germany were never friends and they still aren’t. EEC was meant to keep their relations out on the open, regulated by laws settled in the contract signed in Rome in already mentioned 1957. We of course can sign this benefit under France since war does not really help countries involved in it.
Then of course we have economic reasons. We all know France is very ago-cultural country. Very “flat” country that is nets exporter of food. Given access to the common market of EEC (now EU) enabled it to sell it’s products at better prices, enabled it to produce even more and gain a lot in form of taxes and raised GDB.
Since France is a flat country, we could guess it does not have much coal and other rocks. By joining the EEC, France gained access to Saarland and Rhineland in Germany, which are very coal rich areas in Germany. But not just coal, Germany and other countries of EEC and members joined later on in today named European Union have so much to offer to France. From products, services, culture and of course, the working force.
Working force is another great benefit, that we cannot forget to mention. France and other countries as well, got the chance of bringing in educated people so with other word, by establishing the EEC, member countries got a chance to exchange knowledge and knowledge is as we all know the most important resource in todays economy.
Another important factor are the economies of scale. The huge market that members of EU have available at the moment is priceless. Companies can lower their costs by mass production and this is not just a benefit to individual countries but to the world since the allocation of production factors in much better divided in the global economy.
We must not forget the benefits of people going around the Europe without problems and traffic jams on borders. We can also not forget on all the cultural exchange which is very important. All members of EU, no matter what size, have so much to learn from each other. Even though, we are all EU citizens we are soo different and this is what makes as rich!
