gdom, Greece, Portugal, and Spain. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden became members. All together, to this day, there are fifteen members in the EC. The purpose of the European Union was to improve cooperation between countries and remove, or at least reduce, trade and labor market barriers. In a sense, they want to create an entity very similiar to the U.S. in the fact that Americans enjoy relatively free movement of people, money, and goods. The headquarters of EU were established in Brussels. Here the EC Commission is responsible for many things such as labor, transportation, trade...etc. This is very similar to the United States Cabinet (Ball pg.139). A council of ministers was set up to be the policy-setting body for the EU. The Prime ministers of each country meet to establish policy, which will be enforced by the commissioners. The European Parliament was established as a governing body for the European Union. Voters in each member country elect its members. It operates as a system of checks and balances for the European Commission. It has the power to throw out all the commissioners or veto the entire EU budget. It was limited however, because in the previous powers it was all or nothing. They could not veto parts of the budget or eliminate certain commissioners. In 1987 the Single European Act gave the European Parliament some power to amend the legislation drafted by the European Commission. The EU Court of Justices was established to regulate and decide any cases that arise under the Treaty of Rome. Its power is growing because of the high volume of cases it handles and the authority it has over the courts of the member countries. European Union has definitely become a force in world international trade. It is the largest import and export market in the world. It is second in the world to the U.S. in GDP. It also accounts for twenty percent of world trade (Ball pg.139). The people of Europe feel th...