Samenvatting Business Dimension of Europe

The Business Dimension of
Europe
Summary per lecture + word vocabulary


Lecture 1

Europe is more than the European Union.
European Union:
 27 Countries, 446 million people
 Founded in 1952
 Ensures easy trading
 Great-Britten was the first country to decide to exit the EU. (started in 2016)


Important data:
1989: Fall of Berlin wall. (means: end of Communism EU economic help begins)
1992: criteria set for a country to join the EU
• Democracy and rule of law
• Ability to implement EU laws
• Functioning market economy
1998: Formal negotiations on enlargement begin.
2002: Copenhagen summit agrees to a big enlargement of 10 new countries
2004: Ten new EU members: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia.
2007: Bulgaria and Romania join the EU.
2013: Croatia joins the EU on 1 July and is the last country to join.


The treaties:
1952: The European Coal and Steel Community
1958: The treaties of Rome: - The European Economic Community
- The European Atomic Energy Community
(EURATOM)
1987: The European Single Act: The Single Market
1993: Treaty on European Union - Maastricht
1999: Treaty of Amsterdam

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,2003: Treaty of Nice
2009: Treaty of Lisbon


The Average Wealth per Person does not say anything about the income
differences. For example, the VS has the highest average wealth per person, but
their income differences could be a lot bigger than a country with a low Average
Wealth per Person.


Europe's growth strategy (Europe 2020):
 Good economic governance;
Better coordination of economic policy.
 Inclusive growth;
More and better jobs, investment in skills and training, modernisation of the
labour market and welfare systems, the benefits of growth to all parts of the
EU.
 Sustainable growth;
A resource-efficient / greener / more competitive economy.
 Smart growth;
Better education, more research, greater use of communication technologies.

At the time of the making of this strategy, 2010, the most money was put into
sustainable growth.


Advantages of the Euro:
 Stable prices for consumers
 More choice for consumers
 Economic cooperation between EU countries is closer
 Easier to compare prices internationally
 No fluctuation risks
 No foreign exchange costs


The single market has led to:
 Significant reductions in prices
 More choice for consumers


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,  More jobs
 Freedoms of movement; Goods, Services, People, Capital




Schengen agreement;
 No checks at borders between most EU countries
 Controls strengthened at the EU’s external borders
 More cooperation between police from different EU countries
 Buy and bring back any goods for personal use when you travel between EU
countries


Lecture 2
Business: Organization that provides goods or services to earn profit.
Profits: Difference between a business's revenue and its expense.


External environments of business:
 Social cultural
 Political legal
 Economic
 Global business
 Domestic business
 Technological


Factors of production:
 Physical resources (fysieke middelen)
 Entrepreneurs (ondernemers)
 Labor (arbeid)
 Information resources (informatiehulpbronnen)
 Capital (kapitaal)


Types of economic systems:
 Planned economy; Relies on centralized government, controls all or most
factors of production, communism, socialism
 Market economy; Supply and Demand

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