Activities

European Union Activities

Agricultural

The aim of the common agricultural policy is to provide farmers with a reasonable standard of living and consumers with quality food at fair prices. The way these aims are met has changed of the years. The key concepts now are food safety, preservation of the rural environment and value for money.

Audiovisual

Television is our primary source of information and entertainment. We each spend, on average, up to three hours a day watching news, sports, films and other programmes. The audiovisual sector provides one million EU jobs. It involves big commercial interests and issues of cultural diversity, public service and social responsibility. Each national government runs its own audiovisual policy, while the Union sets rules and guidelines where common interests, like open EU borders and fair competition, are concerned.

Budget

What do a small bakery in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin and teachers of linguistics at Slovenia's Jozef Stefan Institute, research engineers at Krakow University of Technology and Lisbon's Oriente railway station have in common? All have received funding from the European Union's budget. By far the largest share of the EU's annual budget is spent for the benefit of people and communities across Europe. The EU budget helps to pay, for example, for clean air and water, safer food and cancer research.

Competition

Effective competition is crucial to an open market economy. It cuts prices, raises quality and expands customer choice. Competition allows technological innovation to flourish. For this to happen, fair play on the part of businesses and governments is essential. The European Commission has wide powers to make sure they stick to European Union rules on fair trade in goods and services.

Consumers

Every citizen is a consumer and the European Union takes great care to protect their health, safety and economic well-being. It promotes their rights to information and education, takes steps to help them safeguard their interests, and encourages them to set up and run self-help consumer associations.

Culture

Language, literature, performing arts, visual arts, architecture, crafts, the cinema and broadcasting are all part of Europe's cultural diversity. Although belonging to a specific country or region, they represent part of Europe's common cultural heritage. The aim of the European Union is double: to preserve and support this diversity and to help make it accessible to others.

Customs

The customs union was one of the EU's earliest milestones. It abolished customs duties at internal borders and put in place a uniform system for taxing imports. Internal border controls subsequently disappeared. Customs officers are now found only at the EU's external borders. They not only keep trade flowing, but help to protect the environment, our cultural heritage and plenty besides.

Development

Nearly half the money spent to help poor countries comes from the European Union and its member states, making it the world's biggest aid donor. But development policy is about more than providing clean water and surfaced roads, important though these are. The Union also uses trade to drive development by opening its markets to exports from poor countries and by encouraging them to trade more with each other.

Economic and Monetary Affairs

In order to deliver steady growth and create jobs across the Union, member governments must run their economies according to the same sound principles of economic management. The keys to success are close policy coordination, peer pressure and consensus. The single currency is part of this process.

Education, Training, Youth

Learning, training and working in other countries make a major contribution to cross-cultural understanding. More than 100 000 EU citizens benefit each year from EU-funded cross-border programmes which both foster an understanding of different cultures and make it easier to take advantage of the opportunities the EU offers its citizens for living, studying and working in other European countries. The EU also promotes improvements in national education and training quality because this is important for jobs and growth

Employment and Social Affairs

More and better jobs and equal opportunities are the watchwords of European employment and social policy. The European Union wants to make sure that no one gets left behind as it strives to become the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy. The framework is a Social Policy Agenda designed to link economic, employment and social policies.

Energy

We take energy for granted. Fuel shortages and power cuts are rare, but timely, reminders that we rely on energy for transport, for heating our homes in winter, cooling them in summer and running our factories, farms and offices. But many energy resources are finite. In addition, energy use is often a source of pollution. Sustainable development means using less fossil fuel more intelligently.

Enlargement

The entry of eight central and eastern European countries together with Cyprus and Malta into the European Union on 1 May 2004 was a historic achievement, ending centuries of division. Europe reunited means a stronger, democratic and more stable continent, with a single market providing economic benefits for all its 450 million citizens.

Enterprise

While modern and often successful, European business and industry cannot afford to rest on their laurels. It is a constant challenge to remain competitive and keep up with technology. Meeting the challenge successfully is essential for sustainable growth and for our greater prosperity. EU enterprise policy plays its part by fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in manufacturing and services.

Environment

Protecting the environment is essential for the quality of life of current and future generations. The challenge is to combine this with continuing economic growth in a way which is sustainable over the long term. European Union environment policy is based on the belief that high environmental standards stimulate innovation and business opportunities.

External Relations

The sheer size of the European Union in economic, trade and financial terms makes it a world player. The EU has a web of bilateral and multilateral agreements covering most countries and regions of the globe. The biggest trader and home to the world's second currency, the EU also spends a billion euro a month in assistance projects in all five continents. Handling the Union's external relations is literally a global responsibility.

External Trade

The European Union is the world's biggest trader, accounting for 20% of global imports and exports. Free trade among its members underpinned the successful launch nearly 50 years ago of the EU. The Union is therefore a leading player in efforts to liberalise world trade for the mutual benefit of rich and poor countries alike

Fisheries

The EU fishing industry is a major source of employment and food. It is therefore important to prevent over-fishing by some to the detriment of all. The European Union has a common fisheries policy (CFP) in order to manage the industry for the benefit of both fishing communities and consumers.

Food Safety

Consumer confidence in the safety of food products has sometimes been shaken in recent years by the cumulative impacts of food-related health crises. Responding to the challenge, the European Union has put in place a comprehensive strategy to restore people's belief in the safety of their food "from the farm to the fork".

Foreign and Security Policy

The idea that the European Union should speak with one voice in world affairs is as old as the European integration process itself. But the Union has made less progress in forging a common foreign and security policy over the years than in creating a single market and a single currency. The geopolitical changes following the collapse of communism and the outbreak of regional crises in the Balkans and beyond led EU members to redouble efforts to speak and act as one. A new framework is emerging.

Fraud

Cigarette smuggling, counterfeit euro coins, diversion of aid for Kosovo, subsidies for oranges grown on farms which do not exist - all these defraud European taxpayers. The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) has more than 350 officials looking after the financial interests of the European Union and its taxpayers.

Humanitarian aid

Images of conflict and disaster fill our televisions screens and newspaper front-pages every week. The European Union is at the heart of a network whose role is to alleviate the ensuing human suffering. The aim is to get aid to those who need it as quickly as possible, irrespective of race, religion or political convictions, or whether the crisis results from a man-made conflict or a natural disaster

Human rights

Human rights, democracy and the rule of law are core values of the European Union. Embedded in its founding treaty, they have been reinforced by the adoption of a Charter of Fundamental Rights. Respect for human rights is a prerequisite for countries seeking to join the Union and a precondition for countries who have concluded trade and other agreements with it.

Information society

Practically non-existent 15 years ago, mobile phones are everywhere. The internet provides endless streams of online information. We are offered a bewildering array of programmes and services as high-capacity digital systems bring together the formerly separate worlds of broadcasting and telecommunications. This revolution in information technology is creating the information society - at home, at school and at work. The European Union and its policies and actions have guided and supported the revolution since the beginning.

Internal market

Ten years on, we take the European single market for granted. With old barriers gone, people, goods, services and money move around Europe as freely as within one country. We travel at will across the EU's internal frontiers for business and pleasure or, if we choose, we can stay at home and enjoy a dazzling array of products from all over the European Union. In 1993, the single market was the EU's greatest achievement; it was also its toughest challenge.

Justice and Home Affairs

The freedom European Union citizens enjoy to travel, work and live anywhere in the EU can easily be taken for granted. To benefit fully from this right, people need to lead their lives and go about their business in security and safety. They must be protected against international crime and enjoy equal access to justice and respect for their fundamental rights across the Union. This is why the EU is creating an area of freedom, security and justice.

Public health

In a world where people regularly travel between countries and continents, threats to the health of EU citizens from communicable diseases cannot be quarantined within national borders. Diseases caused by smoking, poor nutrition or pollution are a matter of concern in all EU countries. In a single market, the safety of pharmaceuticals or blood products is a shared responsibility. While the primary responsibility for health care lies with member states, the EU can help address these challenges more effectively

Regional policy

Although the European Union is one of the richest parts of the world, there are striking internal disparities of income and opportunity between its regions. The entry of 10 new member countries in May 2004, whose incomes are well below the EU average, has widened these gaps. Regional policy transfers resources from affluent to poorer regions. It is both an instrument of financial solidarity and a powerful force for economic integration.

Research and Innovation

The European Union produces almost one third of the world's scientific knowledge. The research and innovation underpinning this knowledge help deliver the prosperity and quality of life EU citizens expect. Joint programmes consolidate the work of EU countries. The main tool is the Sixth Framework Programme. This funds research in the member states and some other countries, and at the EU's own Joint Research Centre.

Taxation

Within the EU, governments retain sole responsibility for direct taxes - the amounts they raise by taxing personal incomes and company profits. EU taxation policy focuses instead on the rates of indirect taxes like value-added tax and excise duties which can directly affect the single market. It also ensures that tax rules do not prevent capital moving freely around the EU and that free movement of capital does not create opportunities for avoiding tax. EU policy also targets tax rules which might limit the rights of EU citizens to work anywhere in the EU.

Transport

Open frontiers and affordable transport have given Europeans unprecedented levels of personal mobility. Goods are shipped rapidly and efficiently from factory to customer, often in different countries. The European Union has contributed by opening national markets to competition and by removing physical and technical barriers to free movement. But today's transport patterns and growth rates are unsustainable.

• Activities of the EU