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Zakhar Vasilievich Pokudov, Viktor Evgenievich Tumanin, Marat Zufarovich Galiullin y Elvira
Imbelevna Kamaletdinova
George W. Bush and the Political and Military Integration of the EU (2004-2008)
legal action which would enforce political ideas of this constitution would
be the Lisbon Treaty, which was signed in December 2007 and enacted on
1 December 2009 (Levina, 2010).
The next European enlargement happened in 2007, when Romania and
Bulgaria joined the European Union, even though it was evident that these
countries were not ready to join the European Union. According to Tibor,
the European Union had never before integrated countries with such a low
average income, which was 3,500 and 4,500 dollars in Bulgaria and Romania
respectively. The comparison to the 9,200 dollars of average income for
the ten previously admitted Eastern and Central European countries,
and especially to the 29000 dollars income among average countries in
the European Union, was striking. Moreover, Bulgaria and Romania had
problems with corruption and transparency and had a lousy infrastructure
(Tibor, 2010). Nevertheless, with the enlargement of the European Union
the Schengen area had also enlarged. Thus, in December 2007 Poland, the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia joined the Schengen area. In December 2008 Switzerland
joined, which in the same manner as Norway and Iceland, is a member of
the Schengen area, but not a member of the European Union (Dragunova,
2008).
Nonetheless, we might also say that during the rst decade of the 21st
century, Europe was enlarging not only to the East but also to the West.
Despite some political conundrum between the USA and the EU, the trade
between these two political entities remained to be extremely lucrative. To
point out this fact, in 2007 the transatlantic economic integration act was
signed between the president of the European Commission, José Manuel
Barroso, George W. Bush and Angela Merkel (Nolan, 2012).
Therefore, the
future of the transatlantic relationships looked bright. For instance, that is
how José Manuel Barroso commented on the transatlantic relationships
before signing this treaty, “Our political relationship with the US is as
close as ever, based on deep ties of kinship. With the international role of
the US economy as powerful as ever and with the EU now rmly back on
the growth and jobs path, this is the right time to deepen our economic
partnership and to further strengthen the transatlantic economy. This
agreement will allow us to demolish existing, unnecessary barriers posed
by divergent regulations and nip new ones in the bud. With the necessary
political commitment and follow up on all sides, the new framework will
deliver lower costs for businesses and consumers on both sides of the
Atlantic» (European Commission, 2007).
Moreover, with the economic cooperation, the military cooperation was
also striving. Western Europe in 2007 held a solid second place among
world regions in terms of military spending, by spending 301 billion
dollars, which was 22,5% from the world military spending. In addition to