Understanding the EU

On my last RIAS exchange in 2001 the "United States of Europe" was still a realatively new political entity. On this trip, a full day of meetings was devoted to the workings of the EU and its endless array of commissions and councils. The EU issues directives and it is up to the member countries to pass the required laws, which is a problem when some countries don't want to go along. Americans, accustomed to a union with a single currency and federal laws, have trouble grasping the fact that the Eurozone is a different set of countries who are financially qualified to use the euro, and for immigration and trade purposes the so-called Schengen group is yet a different list.
The recent financial problems of Greece, and the resulting "bailout" have presented challenges for the EU's response to the world financial crisis. Former communist countries like Romania and Bulgaria have been admitted as members but haven't lived up to expectations for ending government corruption. Bulgaria did such a bad job of accounting for EU development money that the funds had to be returned. Romania is sitting on 23 Billion development euros to build badly needed roads, but doesn't have the "financial capacity" to spend it properly. All of this has the EU slowing down on the admission of new members. All member nations must agree to admit a new country, and Turkey's prospects seem dim because tiny Cyprus will never approve.
EU offiicials shared some fascinating observations, but agreed to talk only "off the record," which made their comments of limited use to a bunch of journalists. In fact, the full day of lilting European accents made it a challenge for some of us to stay awake!
We attended the official press briefing, which was on the record, and dealt with such topics as Belgian sewerage treatment and an EU court ruling on a libel suit against an Albananian TV channel which reported on the alleged sexual misconduct of a public official. As a media trainer I have learned that libel suits are a way for authoritarian governments to put investigative news organizations out of business. The EU can't do much about it, except to point out that freedom of the press is a requirement for membership.