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Country = Western Europe (EU) |
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Program Fee = $19,800 USD
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A single currency — the euro—became reality on 1 January 2002, when euro coins and notes replaced national currencies in twelve of the fifteen countries of the Union. |
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All began when first proposed by the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman,
in a speech on 9 May 1950. |
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This date, is officially the "birthday" of what is now the EU, known as the Europe Day.
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The European Union now is an association of 25 states in Europe all which have agreed upon
integration and coordination much of their economic policy and some other policy areas. |
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The first steps to a united Europe |
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The first step along the path of European unification was the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951 to coordinate coal and steel production by France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxemburg. In that post-war period the
Community was primarily seen as a way of securing peace by bringing victors and vanquished together within an institutional structure which would allow them to cooperate as equals.
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In 1957 the countries signed the Treaties of Rome which established the European Atomic
Energy Community (Euroatom) and the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC created a custom union thus eliminating all tariffs among the member states and then by 1968 adopting
a common set of tariffs on imports from countries outside the community. |
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In 1967, the ECSC, the Euroatom and the EEC were merged into the European Community (EC). From this point on,
there was a single Commission and a single Council of Ministers as well as the European Parliament. By the end of the decade the EC achieved more common policies, notably an
agricultural policy and a commercial policy. |
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In its first enlargement, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom were integrated and
increased the number of member states to nine, matching by then a deepening of the Community’s tasks;
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it was given responsibility for social, regional and environmental matters. |
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In the early 1970s the need for further economic convergence and monetary union became apparent.
Helping stabilise exchange rates and encourage member states to pursue strict economic policies was the launch of a European Monetary System in 1979, enabling them to give each other mutual support
and benefit from the discipline imposed by an open economic area.
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With the signing of the Single European Act (SEA) in 1986, the EC set itself the task of creating a single market by 1. January 1993.
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