Allgemeine Wirtschaftslehre (Fach) / Wirtschaft (Lektion)
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- EU When we talk about Europe than we have to keep in mind that there is a geographical Europe and a political Europe. Seen geographically, Europe is a continent, or being more speficic a subcontintent which togehter with Asia forms the contintent euroasia. However, today Europe is mostly regarded as being a continent of its own. This is because when we want to define Europe it is not enough to look at geography but we also have to take other aspects into consideration: cultural, historical, political and economic aspects f.e. We can say that at the moment 46 countries belong to Europe or at least partly belong to Europe such as Turkey which is for one part European and for another part Asian. But only 26 of them belong to the EU (Zyprus geographically belongs to Asia). Therefore of course we have to distinguish between Europe and the EU which is a political institution. When we want to understand what the EU is we have to go back in history as far as 1951: - the European Coal and Steel community was established by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Italy, France and Germany. The idea was to accelerate economic growth, to make trade between the member states easier and to prevent military conflicts for the future. And to make it easier to travel without border controls and visa. - in 1957 the Euracom European Atomic Energy Community and the EEC European Economic Community was founded as a result of the Treaties of Rome - in 1973 the UK, Ireland and Denmark followed. - in the 80s Greece, Portugal and Spain followed. - At that time one spoke about the European Community, with the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 the EC turned into EU, as a result the EU had other tasks than only economic ones. - If a country wants to join the EU it has to fulfill the Copenhagen Criteria (1993): democracy and constitutionality and market economy - in 1995 Sweden, Finland and Austria joined the EU. - in 2004 10 new member states from Eastern europe joined among them former communist states as Estonia, Letvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovákia. - in 2007 Romania und Bulgaria followed. - Norway does not belong to the EU. - Treaty of Lisbon 2009 EU got a constitution Tasks of the EU today - it is a Wertegemeinschaft - it is a Supranationality (countries give up their own souvereignity, they cannot make decision alone), however there are also intergouvernmental decision, e.g. common foreign and security policy where countries merely work together. - is a legal community - principle of subsidiary: EU should not develop into a "supernation" not everything has to be decided by the Eu, if it is possible that member states can make decision themselves than this is preferred. Only if it is really necessary that the EU can rule things better, it will intervene. - principle of competence-competence: this means that the EU can only manage things if the member states have given it the instruction to do so. - principle of degressive proportionality: there are very small (Malta 80.000 inhabitants) and very big member states, in principle the bigger member states have more influence than the smaller ones, this is natural, however it is a principla of the EU that smaller member states are guaranteed enough influence, thus more influence than it would have only because of its share of the total population of the EU. - it has a common domestic market (the largest of the world), which makes trade easier. - it has a say in environmental policy >f.e. passed laws in 2007 in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. - common agricultural policy - common external policy, security policy, defence policy - it can pass regulations which are binding for all member states The Bodies of the EU - The EU COMMISSION executive: the "watchdog of the treaties", responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.operates as a cabinet government with 27 commissioners, one per member state, The President of the Commission (Barrosso from Portugal) is first nominated by the European Council; that nominee is then officially elected by the European Parliament. the legislative is subdivided into 2 chambers as it is the case in many states: - legislative EU PARLIAMENT passes laws together with the Council and has a control function, members are directly elected by the EU citizens every 5 years, current president is Jerzy Buzek from Poland, it has its seat in Straßburg, it is the citizen chamber of the legislative EUROPEAN COUNCIL not a part of the legislative, it is summoned at least for meetings a year, the heads of state and government come together, define general political guidelines, its president is Herman van Rompuy the COUNCIL (also referred to as council of ministers) is the other part of the legislative one minister from every member state. It is the state chamber of the legislative. - Court of Justice of the European Union (judicial branch) interprets and applys the treaties and laws of the EU. It is subdivided into the Court of Justice (cases taken by member states to the court), the General Court (cases taken by indivuduals and companies to the court) and the EU Civil Service Tribunal (disputes between the EU and its civil servants (Beamte)
- Euroland all countries which have the euro as their official currency. This are 16 states (9 states do not belong the EU but use the euro as a currency e.g. Vatikan, Monaco on basis of agreements and countries such andorra which never had a currency of their own) was introduced in 1999 but the first coints and banknotes were introduced in 2001. The last countries which have introduced the Euro were malta and Cyrus in 2008. Eleven members do not use the euro: Denmark, sweden, gb, bulgarie, czech rep, hungary, estonia, latvia, lithuania, poland and romania. Some of the did not wanted the eruo (GB, Denmark) others are still applying for. Maastricht Kriterien müssen erfüllt werden stabilität eg. budget defizit must not be more than 3 percent of GDP.
- European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union (EU) tasked with administrating the monetary policy of the 16 EU member states taking part in the Eurozone. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. The current President of the ECB is Jean-Claude Trichet. tasks: to maintain price stability and keep inflation low The ECB has the exclusive right to authorise issuance of banknotes its most important body is the council of the ECB in which also Axel Weber president of the German deutsche Bundesbank sits.
- Deutsche Bundesbank it is the central bank of the federal republic of germany. It was founded in 1957 before that we had the Bank deutscher Länder and the Federal banks (Zentralbanken) a system which was established by the allied powers after the second world war. Since 1999 it gave its monetary souvereignity to the ECB. guarantees stability of the currency payment transaction within the own country and to other countries. - grants credits to banks - is the bank of all banks - administrates the German currency reserves (gold , dollars)
- Fed it is the central bank of the US. banks of all banks it consists of the board of governors (setting policy) , 12 regional federal reserve banks and a number of member banks and other institutions (carrying out the policy). The member banks are the owners but the directory board is nominated by the president therefore the fed is party privately partly publicly structured. it was founded in 1913 by the US congres after a big financial crisis in the USA. It should control credits. (The fed regularly informs the congress about its activities and plans. Congress can change laws but will not intervene in daily business of the Fed.) its president is ben bernanke its main tasks are - to monitor and regulate the banking system - maintain a working paying system - monitor the number of coins and bills produced every day - to raises or lowers short term interest rates - defines the miminum reserve It's main role is to control inflation The Fed's primary control is in the raising and lowering of short-term interest rates. In doing this, the Fed can indirectly influence demand, which then influences the economy. For example, if interest rates are lowered, borrowing money to make purchases becomes less expensive, and people are more motivated to spend money because they can get a better deal on the loan. Spending money, in turn, stimulates economic growth, which is what the Fed is trying to do in that instance. If there is too much money in the economy, however, people spend more money and demand increases at a faster rate than supply can match. Prices rise too quickly because of the shortage of products, and inflation results. If there is too little money in the economy, people don't have excess spending money, and there is little economic growth.
- value of a currency A long time ago people had no money. However the idea of markets as such is very old. Already in the stone age people began to change goods, they used for example feathers, shells etc. to change against st. else. This is how markets developed . In the beginning there were many different goods which could be used as a means of payment like food, jewellery or vieh. Later precious metals as silver and gold became prevalent. What all these means of payments had in common was that they had a value because they were rare and wanted by everybody. That they have a certain value seems logical. however, Today we have printed money which does not have any value if you only look at the material it is made of. So what is the value of money? Things have become much more complicated in comparison to the stone age. Because the worth of money nowaday depends on many factors. Money is purchasing power, its value is influenced by factors as the inflation rate, prices, the economic situation of a country, it depends on the balance of supply and demand and it is influenced by speculations. However, there is not only the value inside the country but the value of a currency is also influenced by the relation to other countries. You can't isolate your currency. It also has to do with politics for example some currencies are pegged to another currency. For example the US dollar became the leading currency in Europe after the Second World war as a result of the bretton woods conference in 1944. fixed exchange rates. The value of all currencies were defined on the dollar. And the value of the dollar was guaranteed by gold reserves. Big inflation, not enough gold reserves system collapsed in 1972. Yuan is pegged to the dollar.
- EFTA European Free Trade Associaton founded in 1960 in Stockholm, Sweden growth and wealth of member states, make trade easier,abolish duties, and economic cooperation easier, should serve as a counter balance for the EU. Its founding members were Denmark, Norway, Austria, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. Later Finland, Iceland and Liechtenstein joined. After most of its members joined the EU, the EfTA today consists of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein. Today it is busy with the regulation of trade among the member states and with agreements with third countries. It has negotiated free trade agreements with 17 souteasteuropean countries latin american asian and countries at the mediterranian see. general secretary bryn from norway. it has a 3 secretariats in Brussels, geneva and luxemburg it has a court in luxemburg The EFTA Surveillance Authority and the EFTA Court regulate the activities of the EFTA members in respect of their obligations in the European Economic Area (EEA). it has a surveillance authority in Brussels guardian of the treaties.
- NAFTA North American Freetrade Association Association between Canada, Mexico and the USA. was founded in 1994. abolished duties it is an interngovernmental agreement with no central seat. NaFTA has been discussed controversally. Trade Unions in the USA were against the NAfta because they were afraid that people in America would lose their jobs and their work would be done by cheaper workers in Mexico. Farmers in Mexico think that the open market leads to unfair trade because of the subsidies for US farmers. Many economists are of the opinion that nafta did not lead to more trade but to the fact that members import more goods from other Nafta countries and not from countries outside the agreement. US profits because of they can settle companies in Mexico where salaries are lower and can produce cheaper, Mexico could increase its exports to the US.
- ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations international organisation with seat in Jakarta (indonesia). it was founded in 1976 (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Phillipines and Singapur) in order to improve economic, political und social cooperation. Later also security, cultural and environmental aspects were taken into consideration. today it has ten member states (vietnam, papaneuguiniea ....) Pituswan Secretary General ASEAN is a community of interest, which makes common decisions. There is one summit meeting every year. The chairman changes every year among the member states. The most important body is the secretary in Jakarta. It has many different member states and some integration problems. However in 2007 human rights were agreed on in the charta.
- MERCORSUR it is the common market in south america. Mercado Común del Sur spanish abbreviation. founded in 1991 argentina, brazil. paraguay, uruguay, venzuela,# it has some associated states. At the moment mexico and bolivia are interested to become member. its headquarters are in montevideo uruquay its most important aim was to create a common market without duties, stimulate economic growth of member states, taking social justice an invironmental protection into consideration and free trade of goods, a common trade policy towards other states, common policy (monetary, agricultural, improve infrastructure, integration in the big international trade blocks
- EUROMED nEuro-mediteranian partnership there was a conference of the foreign ministers of the eu and partner countries in Barcelona in 1995 they got a control body in the same year the euromed. parliamentarian assembly. in 1995 the eu announced that the mediterreaninan region was a region of strategic interest. The European council decided to establish a formal union in 2008 in Paris. Member states were the EU-memberstates and 12 other states at the med. sea eg. marokko, israel, turkey, malta target. to crate peace, stability and wealth in the med. region by means of cooperation they also want to create a free trade zone. security, democracy, human rights, fight against unemployment, the seat is since 2008 in Barcelona Ahmed masade from jordanie is secretary general. planned are summit meetings every 2 years
- G6 G7 G8 G20 The group of 8 is a group of the biggest industrial nations in the world. It includes Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, the USA and the UK. It was created by France in 1975. At the beginning it was only a group of 6 nations (G6), Canada joined in 1976 (forming the G7) and Russia in 1997 forming the G8. It is not an international organisation but a discussion forum. In addition the EU is represented within the G8 but cannot host or chair. G8 can refer to: - the member states - the annual summit meeting of the G8 heads of government - each calendar year the responsibility of hosting the G8 rotates through the member states. - When the G6 was founded in 1975 the member states wanted to create a forum which should discuss financial and monetary issues. Background was the question of what should happen with monetary policy after Bretton Woods. In the cause of time, however, a lot more topics have been discussed: the G8 now also discusses about environment, health, education, climate change, foreign politics, international trade and law f.e. members of the summit are ministers and leading officials. In the G8 countries 2 thirds of world trade takes place. G20: is a group of finance ministers and central bank gouvernors. It was founded in 2008
- OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development international economic organisation of 31 countries. It defines itself as a forum of countries committed to democracy and the market economy, co-ordinating domestic and international policies of its members. background : In 1948 the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) was founded in France to help administer the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. (Germany joined in 1955) (France, Italy, Sweden, belgium, The Netherlands...) Later, its membership was extended to non-European states. (US joined in the 60s, Japan, Mexico, ...) In 1961, it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Apart from Chile its members are high-income economies and are regarded as developed countries. The OECD's headquarters are at Paris. The OECD has been criticised by several civil society groups and developing countries. The main criticism has been the narrowness of the OECD because of its limited membership. Many critics argued that the agreement would threaten protection of human rights, labor and environmental standards. A particular concern was that it would result in a 'race to the bottom' among countries willing to lower their labor and environmental standards to attract foreign investment. aims: to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy; to contribute to sound economic expansion in Member as well as nonmember countries in the process of economic development; and to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, nondiscriminatory basis in accordance with international obligations. Secretary General is José Ángel Gurría Treviño from Mexico. It has a secretariat and several committes central and eastern europe, the US