European Union(EU)
The EU was established on the 1st November 1993 in Maastricht, Netherlands. Its
predecessor was the European Economic Community which was founded in 1957 and made
to bring about economic integration among its member states. When the European Union
was established the ECC was renamed to the European Community and incorporated as a
part of the European Union. The EU was first established to unite countries in trade and to
promote peace. The first countries to come together were: Belgium, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. Today the main function of the EU is to
‘create and implement laws and regulations that integrate the member states of the EU’.
This means that the EU aims to unite countries in trade, laws, human rights, education level,
health service and allows for easy immigration between member states.
The EU has a big impact on the UK public services because the UK contributes around 8.1
billion towards the EU annually. This money could be used to spend on the UK and the UK's
NHS, Police force, Education etc. 5.5% of the NHS workforce are non-EU nationals and
nearly 5,000 qualified EU teachers are awarded Qualified Teacher Status in the UK every
year. This means that the UK benefits from the law the EU put in place to allowing
immigration throughout all member states.
,United Nations(UN)
The UN was established on the 24th October 1945 in San Francisco, California,
United States to establish international cooperation, peace and security between
nations. Today it acts as a forum for conflict resolution and helps to develop friendly
relations among nations. One of its many functions is to resolve any problems
countries are facing. E.g. the UN can send peacekeeping units that help to resolve
any conflict between any countries and restore world peace. Originally the united
nations was established by 51 countries in 1945 but today 193 out of 195 countries
are part of the UN; the UN works to improve and promotes better living standards
and human rights for all.
The UK is one of the 5 permanent members of the UN security council. This has an
impact of the UK public services because the UK plays a big role in peacekeeping for
the UN and donates its military for military operations for the UN (sending troops to
countries like: Afghanistan, Kosovo, Iraq and Cyprus). It is also the 5th largest financial
provider for the UN. In 2015 the UK provided for 5% of the UN budget and 6.7% of
the peacekeeping budget, this puts a strain on the public services because the UN
needs a lot of funding from the UK to operate. This money could be spent to fund
the public services which lack funding.
, North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO)
The North Atlantic Treaty organization was signed in Washington on 4th April 1949 by the
United States, Canada and many western European countries to provide security against the
Warsaw pact. In 1949 there were only 12 founding members of NATO; now there are 29
members which work together. Today NATO stands to protect countries which are signed to
it; members of NATO commit to maintaining and developing collective defence capabilities
meaning that if one of the NATO allies was to be attacked, it would be considered as an
attack against all. One of the functions of NATO is to deploy peacekeeping units when it is
needed so that conflicts between countries stays at a minimum and so that counties can
make friendly international relations. To function members must completely get rid of any
conflict with the economic policies of other members and promote teamwork to provide
security for other membered countries. NATO also provides security at world summits like:
G8, G20, European world summits etc.
NATO has an impact on the UK public services because the UK deploy peacekeeping
forces when they are required; including the Kosovan force and International
Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. This undeniably reduces the amount of
troops the UK has too protect themselves.