Question -
Answer -
The EU has economic, political and diplomatic, and military influence.
Economic influence:
- The EU is the world’s biggest economy with a GDP of more than $12 trillion in 2005, slightly larger than that of the United States.
- Its currency, the euro, can pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar.
- Its share of world trade is three times larger than that of the United States allowing it to be more assertive in trade disputes with the US and China.
- Its economic power gives it influence over its closest neighbours as well as in Asia and Africa.
- It also functions as an important bloc in international economic organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Political influence:
- The EU also has political and diplomatic influence. Two members of the EU, Britain and France, hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
- The EU includes several non-permanent members of the UNSC. This has enabled the EU to influence some US policies such as the current US position on Iran’s nuclear programme.
- Its use of diplomacy, economic investments, and negotiations rather than coercion and military force has been effective as in the case of its dialogue with China on human rights and environmental degradation.
Military influence:
- The EU’s combined armed forces are the second largest in the world.
- It’s total spending on defence is second after the US.
- Two EU member states, Britain and France, also have nuclear arsenals of approximately 550 nuclear warheads.
- It is also the world’s second most important source of space and communications technology.
- Thus as a supranational organisation, the EU is able to intervene in economic, political and social areas.