{"id":299,"date":"2010-11-23T12:30:17","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T16:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/"},"modified":"2018-07-05T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-05T17:25:53","slug":"extension-of-blind-men-elephants-and-international-integration-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-of-blind-men-elephants-and-international-integration-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Extension: Of Blind Men, Elephants and International Integration (2)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Puchala is pointing out that:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nobody agrees on whether the European Union is a type of country or if it is a large and powerful international organization. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is partly why studying the European Union is so fascinating. It is something new that defies traditional labels like &#8220;country&#8221;, &#8220;nation-state&#8221;, or &#8220;international organization&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The EU is certainly not a country like Canada or the United States, but there are important similarities between them.<\/p>\n<table class=\"cutable\" style=\"width: 100%;\" border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"height: 23px;\">\n<td style=\"height: 23px;\">\n<div><strong>The EU is like a country because:<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"height: 23px;\">\n<div><strong>The EU is unlike a country because:<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 223px;\">\n<td style=\"height: 223px;\">\n<ul>\n<li>Most EU Member States have adopted a single Currency, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.euabc.com\/word\/364\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Euro<\/a>, just as Canada has one currency, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bankofcanada.ca\/banknotes\/bank-note-series\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canadian Dollar<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>Legislation passed by EU institutions is binding on members and can be enforced in courts;<\/li>\n<li>The EU has an anthem and flag like many countries do;<\/li>\n<li>The citizens of the member states directly elect the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.euabc.com\/word\/442\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">European Parliament<\/a>. The European Parliament, however is much weaker than the<a href=\"http:\/\/www.parl.gc.ca\/common\/index.asp?Language=E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> House of Commons<\/a> in Canada. For example, it cannot propose legislation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"height: 223px;\">\n<ul>\n<li>The EU consists of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.euabc.com\/word\/1018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Member States<\/a>, such as Italy and Poland, which have their own constitutions or similar founding documents, as well as their own autonomous governments;<\/li>\n<li>The EU is based on a set of treaties between Member States, rather than on a constitution (although one is under discussion);<\/li>\n<li>The EU does not have its own military force or a common foreign policy (although both are under discussion)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>So what exactly is the European Union?<\/p>\n<p>There are many terms and concepts that are used to describe the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>Click on each of the following terms to find out how these terms describe and define the European Union:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-what-is-regional-integration\/\">Regional integration<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-what-are-international-organizations\/\">International organizations<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-is-the-eu-a-federation-or-a-confederation\/\">Federations and confederations<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-regional-integration-and-the-eu\/\">Next &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Puchala is pointing out that: Nobody agrees on whether the European Union is a type of country or if it is a large and powerful international organization. This is partly why studying the European Union is so fascinating. It is something new that defies traditional labels like &#8220;country&#8221;, &#8220;nation-state&#8221;, or &#8220;international organization&#8221;. The EU is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":79,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Extension: Of Blind Men, Elephants and International Integration (2) - EU Learning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Puchala is pointing out that: Nobody agrees on whether the European Union is a type of country or if it is a large and powerful international\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-of-blind-men-elephants-and-international-integration-2\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-of-blind-men-elephants-and-international-integration-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/ces\/eulearning\/introduction\/what-is-the-eu\/extension-of-blind-men-elephants-and-international-integration-2\/\",\"name\":\"Extension: Of Blind Men, Elephants and International Integration (2) - 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