Case Study about National Strategies for Sustainable Development: European Union
Introduction:~ The European Union (EU) is a union of 25 European countries, covering an area of 3,977,304 km² and a population of 446 million (112 inhabitants per km²). The Union is a somewhat unique entity – it can be considered a mixture of a federative state and a supranational institution. The Member States transferred partial sovereignty rights to the European Level in order to form a single common market, and nowadays also a common defence policy, but Member States remain to have the last responsibility for decision-making. Today, many different policies are subject of European regulation. Especially Environmental Policies of Member States are mainly shaped by European Environmental Law.
The GDP of the 15 Member States amounted in 2004 to US$ 10,422.2 billion (1995 exchange rates) with annual growth rates between 3.6 and 0.6 from 1994 to 2003 (OECD 2004). In 2002, the GDP per capita was 22,911 US$ based on PPS. It ranges from 8,400 US$ in Lithuania to 48,900 US$ in Luxemburg (OECD 2003, Eurostat 2004). By this, the Union constitutes the largest single market in the world. From 1999 onwards, a common currency, the Euro was introduced in the EU-15 stepwise, in 2002 the national currencies were given up with the exception of UK, DK, Sweden. The economic structure varies between the Member States; however, compared to many countries in the world, they are highly developed and industrialised countries with a small share of agriculture, an important share of industry in a great variety of sectors and a large and growing service sector. Keep reading..
