Making Informed Choices

So we are all going to vote on the UK membership of the EU. That is, hopefully there will be a massive turnout for such a monumental event as this.

Here's a mini introduction from the EU information site with links to other helpful text in light orange. Make your own mind up and be sure to vote.

Making informed choices in life is the only way to get a satisfactory result.
We hope this helps. Watch out for more helpful information leading up to the big day on 23 June as and when we publish on the referendum for community interest.

The European Union in brief

At the core of the EU are the Member States — the 28 states that belong to the Union - and their citizens.

The unique feature of the EU is that, although these are all sovereign, independent states, they have pooled some of their ‘sovereignty’ in order to gain strength and the benefits of size. Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the Member States delegate some of their decision-making powers to the shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.

The EU thus sits between the fully federal system found in the United States and the loose, intergovernmental cooperation system seen in the United Nations.

The EU has achieved much since it was created in 1950. It has built a single market for goods and services that spans 28 Member States with over 500 million citizens free to move and settle where they wish. (Downloadable 40page pdf booklet)

It created the single currency — the euro — which is now a major world currency and which makes the single market more efficient.
It is also the largest supplier of development and humanitarian aid programmes in the world.

These are just a few of the achievements so far.

Looking ahead, the EU is working to get Europe out of the economic crisis. (What happened to Greece)

It is at the forefront of the fight against climate change and its consequences; it helps neighbouring countries and continues ongoing negotiations on enlargements; and it is building a common foreign policy which will do much to extend European values around the world.

The success of these ambitions depends on the ability to take effective and timely decisions and to implement them well.