ABSTRACT
The European Union's (EU) internal influence and its role in international relations have grown enormously over the past thirty years. As a supranational arm of European government it has been a hugely significant and, in many ways, successful enterprise. These emerge particularly in regard to the states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the related issue of whether widening will weaken the Union. The European Economic Area (EEA) is an intergovernmental organization set up to administer the single market formed by the member states of the EU with Norway and Iceland. The Maastricht Treaty provides for European Parliament approval of new Commissioners. Their period of office was also changed to coincide with the Parliament's. The European Monetary System of the EU attempted to stabilize exchange rates by using the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) which was established in 1979. The Intergovernmental Conference has to start from the uneven development of the EU so far.
