The European Union and UK Businesses

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Christopher Conway 12JIB                AVCE Business Studies

The European Union and UK Businesses

There are many rules that the European Union has set out in a series of Treaties.  These Treaties have forged very strong legal links between the member states of the EU.  The EU laws that are passed in the Treaties directly affect all UK businesses; these laws give UK businesses very specific rights and responsibilities that they must abide by or Tesco could face severe consequences if they fail to comply with the EU laws and regulations, these consequences can range from being fined 15% of their annual turnover and even in very extreme cases a country may refuse to trade with Tesco.

In order for Tesco to make sure that they do not fall foul of the EU law, they will spend large amounts of money to update their policies in order to overview how they are complying with the EU policies and see if they need to update or reform the way in which they are running their business along side the EU laws that they have to abide by.

Treaty of Paris (1951)

The Treaty of Paris, signed on April 18, 1951 between Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands established the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which subsequently became part of the European Union.  The treaty expired on July 23, 2002, exactly fifty years after it came into effect.

The treaty was seen as foundational in bringing together Europe in peace after the Second World War.  Some of the main enemies during the war were now sharing production of coal and steel, one of the very resources which previously had been central to the war effort.

How Tesco is Affected

Tesco would be affected in a postive way as with the signing of the Treaty of Paris, Tesco would benefit from the free trade alliance and would also be able to benefit from the cheap steel prices means that Tesco would find it cheaper to build stores and depots, this means then that Tesco can then return the profits to the shareholders and the customers if they wish to do.  Also if people have more money, they have a higher income, this then leads to the population having more disposiable income and then they spend more on products that are avialable to them, so Tesco know that if they offer good pay to their employees the employees will then buy more from Tesco and more from other companies, this chain of events would then make Tesco bigger and more profitable, and also show Tesco in a good light.


Treaty of Rome (1957)

On 25th March 1957, two treaties were signed in Rome that gave birth to the European Economic Community (EEC) and to European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom): the Treaties of Rome.  The signatories of the historic agreement were Christian Pineau on behalf of France, Joseph Luns from the Netherlands, Paul Henri Spaak from Belgium, Joseph Bech from Luxemburg, Antonio Segni from Italy and Konrad Adenauer from the Federal Republic of Germany.  The Treaties were ratified by National Parliaments over the following months and came into force on 1st January 1958.

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The Treaty establishing the EEC affirmed in its preamble that signatory States were  "determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".  In this way, the member States specifically affirmed the political objective of a progressive political integration. 

The brand new institution was a customs union.  As a consequence, the EEC was colloquially known as "Common Market".  The member countries agreed to dismantle all tariff barriers over a 12-year transitional period. In view of the economic success that freer commercial exchanges brought about, the transitory term was shortened and in July 1968 all tariffs ...

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Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

*** A detailed and organised piece of writing that considers a range of EU law and its impact on Tesco specifically. There is evidence of lots of reading and research, but this has predominantly been deployed in the form of description, rather than analysis. The essay does not make it clear why Tesco has been concentrated on specifically when the remit appears to refer to the impact of the EU on UK businesses. The essay also lacks a conclusion to summarise the main points and directly answer the question.