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number of successes including the political and economic stabilisation of the European continent, the enlargement of the EU from six to twenty-eight member states, and the creation of the Euro. However, the EU has also weathered political and economic storms. The most serious related to the global economic crisis post 2007 which threatened to fatally undermine the stability of the Eurozone area. External challenges – including conflict on the borders of the EU, particularly in the Ukraine and Turkey, and inward migration from war-torn parts of Africa and the Middle
intergovernmental relations has, on occasion, been tested and found wanting. In December 2011, the UK government failed to adequately use the JMC format to prepare a common EU position in advance of an EU summit. Unhappy about the possible impact of proposals to deal with the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, Prime Minister David Cameron vetoed the proposed Fiscal Compact as an EU agreement at the December summit.4 His actions were greeted with dismay by a number of nationalist political figures in Northern Ireland. SDLP MLA Margaret Ritchie labelled the Prime Minister’s actions