The United Kingdom joined the European Union in 1973 after much discussion. Some British people were worried that the British way of life would change forever. There are some advantages and some disadvantage of belonging to the EU.
The most important advantage of belonging to the EU is that the countries that belong are less likely to go to war with each other, as they did twice in the last century. This is because the countries of the EU are tied together economically and politically. All the countries of the EU except for a few have the same currency which makes financial problems less likely. Being a member of the EU means that because it has many members it is more powerful in the world. The EU can make rules to prevent other countries from buying and selling freely from outside the European market. People can move and work freely within the union but this also can be seen as a disadvantage.
Some people think there is dangers that too much power is taken from the countries of Europe and that they are losing the ability too rule themselves. Countries like the UK have refused to use the euro as their currency because they want to keep the pound because it is part of the British way of life. It could be seen as a disadvantage to have all laws made in Brussels because each country in the European Union wants to keep its way of life and they all need different things. There are also those people who fear that the EU may lead each country to lose its own government and that everybody in Europe could be ruled from Brussels.
The European Union is known as a large world power and is important in world politics but are we losing the identity of the different countries inside it? We will see.
