What are the factors that restrict the process of European integration? The goal stipulated in the Maastricht Treaty adopted in 1991 is to build the EU, which is currently basically an economic bloc, into a powerful and compatible economic, political and military power.

economic and political entity.

Given that each EU member state is an independent independent country, it is understandable how difficult it is to meet challenges from all aspects to achieve this goal.

1. When regional integration reaches a certain stage, some transfer of national functions and powers to integration organizations will inevitably occur.

Some member states want to enjoy the benefits of integration, but are unwilling to give up their own rights and interests.

The imbalance in the distribution of power and interests within the EU and the differences in political, economic, and policy objectives and measures among countries have become a major challenge to deepening the reform of institutions, policies, and structures.

2. The current EU enlargement is also a serious challenge to European integration.

As European integration brings huge political and economic benefits to member states, more countries are requesting to join the EU, which is in line with the trend of European integration and the interests of all countries.

However, the political and economic conditions of the countries applying to join are not suitable for the EU's conditions.

Whether to expand eastward or southward, the order of absorbing new members, and the need to reform and adjust internal systems and policies due to expansion have often become issues of internal quarrel.

3. The development of integration will directly affect Atlantic Alliance relations.

The strengthening of European political and economic power and the development of political independence tendencies will inevitably create a situation to compete with the United States.

Recently, European countries have disagreed with the United States on the U.S. national missile defense system and the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, demonstrating the differences and contradictions between Europe and the United States.

How to coordinate European and American relations will be another major challenge facing Europe in the 21st century.

4. Building a new security pattern in Europe is still a challenge facing the EU.

Europe has been yearning for many years to establish independent defense in order to play a major role in maintaining European stability and security. However, the EU currently does not have sufficient military means and necessary operational capabilities to maintain regional security.

European integration is a double-edged sword.

From a positive impact, it can achieve an optimal allocation of various resources economically, promote economic development, help create an environment of mutual trust and cooperation, promote peace in Europe and the world, and promote the development of a multi-polar world.

But its negative effects are also obvious.

First, as Europe becomes more integrated, its protectionist and exclusionary tendencies are likely to become stronger.

Second, the development of the integration process will inevitably bring about more intense internal and external competition, putting some countries in certain regions at a disadvantage or "marginalized" under the impact of external forces.

Third, some major countries can rely on integrated organizations to compete for spheres of influence and economic dominance around the world, becoming a factor of global instability.

However, generally speaking, European integration promotes unity, helps to establish a relatively balanced pattern in Europe, is conducive to restricting some unstable factors and breaking the situation of "hegemony" and "monopoly" of the United States, and promotes the world to become multi-polar.

Development, but European integration is not achieved overnight, but a long-term, tortuous process full of contradictions and coordination, competition and cooperation.

What are the problems with EU integration?

EU economic integration encountered major setbacks. On March 25, the heads of 27 EU countries held a summit in Brussels.

On the issue of aid to Greece, although there were still differences between Germany and France, they finally compromised and passed a framework plan agreement to aid Greece.

The framework plan determines the EU's assistance to Greece and invites the International Monetary Fund to play an important role in it.

This framework plan has two aspects.

First, it has a positive effect on Greece.

Greece finally has a paper commitment to aid, and it can be financed with "preferential interest rates that encourage Greece to return to the market as soon as possible."

The Greek crisis will at least temporarily ease for a few months to a year.

Second, it has a negative impact on the Eurozone.

Because this aid framework invites the participation of forces outside the Eurozone and the EU, it shows that neither the EU nor the Eurozone can be fully relied on, thus eroding the centripetal force of the Eurozone.

Therefore, before the final agreement at the EU summit is reached, France has been rejecting the participation of the International Monetary Fund because it is worried that doing so will damage the credibility of the euro zone and the EU.

It was only at Germany's insistence that the IMF was agreed to play a major role in aid.

The meaning of the two levels of this framework is actually opposite, and its long-term meaning for the EU and the Eurozone is more negative, so the market reaction proves this.

After the news of the EU summit agreement was announced, the euro immediately fell in the foreign exchange market, hitting a 10-month low. Later, it was only after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet made remarks denying that he had criticized the IMF for participating in financing Greece.

The euro was able to rebound in the short term only after a bad incident occurred and the EU and the International Monetary Fund's assistance to Greece was considered a "feasible solution".

Although the EU summit's plan to assist Greece will help ease the crisis in Greece in the short term, and may help Greece obtain financing at a relatively low cost to a certain extent, it will not help solve Greece's fundamental problems.