:00:00. > :00:00.Europe's greatest achievements. You need to know all about it.
:00:00. > :00:40.Welcome to the insider 's guide to the EU.
:00:41. > :00:45.Previously I have showing around Brussels, the Belgian city where you
:00:46. > :00:49.will find the three main institutions of the European Union.
:00:50. > :00:53.That is the commission, the executive where they dream up new
:00:54. > :00:58.legislation. There is a commissioner from each of the 28 member states
:00:59. > :01:05.covering subjects from trade to transport, phones, to fish. Its work
:01:06. > :01:09.is overseen 766 MEPs and the European Parliament just around the
:01:10. > :01:13.corner. It is the only directly elected institution in the EU. In
:01:14. > :01:18.between your phone the council, that is where things are agreed or not by
:01:19. > :01:24.heads of government at the member states. Something that is often on
:01:25. > :01:34.the agenda, a single market. One of the concept at the heart of the EU.
:01:35. > :01:40.Let us explore the single market. The idea behind the single market is
:01:41. > :01:48.that trade can happen across the EU with as few barriers as possible. It
:01:49. > :01:54.is based on the freedoms of movement, goods, capital, and
:01:55. > :02:01.services. Here are some of its ingredients. First of all there are
:02:02. > :02:10.no import tariffs. Then there is harmonisation. It is accompanied by
:02:11. > :02:13.mutual recognition, making member states accept each other's
:02:14. > :02:19.recognitions and professional qualifications. And what about
:02:20. > :02:24.implementation? Each has to write EU rules into their own laws. Some are
:02:25. > :02:27.more enthusiastic than others. Free trade is such an important part of
:02:28. > :02:32.the project that it is mentioned in the second line of the 1957 Treaty
:02:33. > :02:40.of Rome that established what would become the EU. An important test
:02:41. > :02:47.case involved this, a lecturer from France. In the 1970s Germany wanted
:02:48. > :02:55.to imported, the law said he could not. In 1979 the European Court of
:02:56. > :03:02.trust is said that something made in one area could be made available in
:03:03. > :03:07.another. -- Court of Justice. It was not until the Thatcher era that
:03:08. > :03:17.legislation was passed to establish a true single market which came into
:03:18. > :03:26.existence in 1992. Now billions of goods trade within Europe each year.
:03:27. > :03:31.They want to extend the single market into sectors it does not
:03:32. > :03:38.normally reach like transport and telecommunications. Sceptics it does
:03:39. > :03:46.not go down well. Another key idea is the free movement of people,
:03:47. > :03:50.which is helped by an agreement. 400 million Europeans can travel around
:03:51. > :03:53.the continent without a passport thanks to this agreement which
:03:54. > :04:03.abolished internal borders between the 26 countries who are members. It
:04:04. > :04:07.was signed in 1985 by five members of the EU. This village is in
:04:08. > :04:12.Luxembourg, the German border is just over there and the French
:04:13. > :04:17.border is just over there. It was signed on a boat in the middle of
:04:18. > :04:22.the river. The villagers so proud that is even a museum dedicated the
:04:23. > :04:27.agreement. It is full of things that have gone out of fashion on the
:04:28. > :04:42.continent like border posts and customs officers hats. We have a lot
:04:43. > :04:46.of people come in here and they always say that this is what we can
:04:47. > :04:52.feel about Europe, it is something that makes life easier for us. This
:04:53. > :04:59.is one of the reasons why most of them appreciate the agreement. It
:05:00. > :05:09.all sounds so simple. This area is a puzzle. The UK and the Republic of
:05:10. > :05:14.Ireland are not members. Bulgaria and Romania are not allowed to be
:05:15. > :05:21.members. But Iceland and Switzerland, who are not in the EU,
:05:22. > :05:24.but a part of this. Countries can withdraw for security reasons, as
:05:25. > :05:32.France did when they were worried about illegal immigrants. Do not
:05:33. > :05:37.tell Theresa May about the most popular exhibit, the printer own
:05:38. > :05:44.passport machine. Almost as convincing as the real thing. --
:05:45. > :05:49.print your own passport machine. There is also a database containing
:05:50. > :05:56.the information of people of interest such as missing persons.
:05:57. > :06:00.Britain is a member of that. Countries that want to sign up to
:06:01. > :06:12.all of this and joined the EU have to go through the accession process.
:06:13. > :06:18.How do you get into the EU? I have come to mini Europe in Brussels to
:06:19. > :06:24.find out. A country has to fulfil some fundamental criteria. They were
:06:25. > :06:33.written here, in Copenhagen, in the 1990s. A country has to have stable
:06:34. > :06:38.institutions the rule of law, and a fully functioning market economy. If
:06:39. > :06:44.a country broadly measures up it becomes a candidate, then it is put
:06:45. > :06:47.under the magnifying glass during intense negotiations where the EU
:06:48. > :06:52.tells it what reforms have to be made. Then there is an enormous
:06:53. > :07:01.Treaty. All of this takes a long time. Just ask the ambassador for
:07:02. > :07:06.Croatia. It started in 2000. That is when there was an opening to a new
:07:07. > :07:14.perspective of Croatia. Our formal application was submitted in 2003.
:07:15. > :07:20.The negotiations started in 2005 and ended in 2011. We entered the union
:07:21. > :07:25.in 2013. It was 13 years of hard work and personal sacrifice. In our
:07:26. > :07:31.case, 13 ended up being a lucky number. Inevitably, politics come
:07:32. > :07:36.into it. EU officials wanted to delay the accession of Greece, but
:07:37. > :07:40.they were overruled by the politicians. The expansion is to
:07:41. > :07:45.eastern Europe was championed by Britain but others were not so
:07:46. > :07:49.welcoming. The Capers membership was originally veto twice by the French.
:07:50. > :07:53.While we are now potentially ambling towards the exit, there are plenty
:07:54. > :07:58.who would love a spot in mini Europe like Albania. At the end of this
:07:59. > :08:04.process we will see that we have reformed ourselves. We will see that
:08:05. > :08:14.our industries and the other sectors of the economy will have and will be
:08:15. > :08:20.better placed to benefit from the possibilities of a single market in
:08:21. > :08:26.Europe. Is it true that Tony Blair is advising you? It is true he and
:08:27. > :08:31.his team will be advising me government of Albania during this
:08:32. > :08:41.period. We are glad to have their advice and support. Despite the star
:08:42. > :08:46.power, the ambassador will not bet on when Albania gets a seat at the
:08:47. > :08:50.table. Some people say that enlargement is the EU's no
:08:51. > :08:54.successful foreign policy. The lure of membership encourages countries
:08:55. > :09:03.to develop. Others fear that Europe is becoming the opposite of this
:09:04. > :09:10.place, far too big. Let us find out about some EU
:09:11. > :09:15.agencies. First of all, Europol. Welcome to the most secure building
:09:16. > :09:22.in the Netherlands. The offices of Europol in the Hague. It is home to
:09:23. > :09:26.800 officials to help police services in the member states. We
:09:27. > :09:32.are not a European FBI. We do not have all claim those powers. We are
:09:33. > :09:39.an intelligent sensor that can exchange intelligence very quickly
:09:40. > :09:45.and give Leeds to crime agencies so they can track down and apprehend
:09:46. > :09:52.for themselves criminals. Busting drug strings is a speciality. Hence
:09:53. > :09:57.this replica meth lab. You can see we build up a typical amphetamine
:09:58. > :10:06.allowed. That is the breaking bad stuff. Yes. It is a small-scale
:10:07. > :10:14.machine that can produce a fuse out on tablets and now. This is a
:10:15. > :10:19.typical indoor cannabis cultivation attempt. It is very common in the
:10:20. > :10:25.Netherlands and western Europe. You can buy this for a few hundred euros
:10:26. > :10:31.and start growing your cannabis. And every ten or 11 weeks you have a
:10:32. > :10:37.harvest. This room is a Faraday 's cage. It means that no signals
:10:38. > :10:42.penetrate. Inside the case, they scrub crooks hard drives and suck
:10:43. > :10:51.data from their phones. This forensics expertise also good at
:10:52. > :10:55.spotting fake euros. Generally, what goes wrong with counterfeit is, it
:10:56. > :11:01.is that you have nothing to compare it with. If you put it next to
:11:02. > :11:08.genuine notes and start looking for it, you will find differences. You
:11:09. > :11:13.might even be able to determine that it is uncertain. In real life it is
:11:14. > :11:19.not work like that. Here is whether it track networks of counterfeiters
:11:20. > :11:28.who make knockoffs of everything. Every kind of product can be
:11:29. > :11:38.counterfeited. Food can also be counterfeited. How does that work?
:11:39. > :11:43.It is like a cross between the untouchables and an EU summit. Here
:11:44. > :11:46.is where the politics come into it. Early this year the European
:11:47. > :11:50.commission raise the idea that countries should be compelled to
:11:51. > :11:55.share more information with Europol. An idea that did not go
:11:56. > :11:59.down very well with the government in the UK. Britain says it would
:12:00. > :12:03.harm national security will stop they said would be a disaster if
:12:04. > :12:09.Britain quit the organisation. Overnight it would lose access to
:12:10. > :12:16.unique intelligence databases on crime. You would lose access to
:12:17. > :12:20.unique operational platforms to co-ordinate thousands of cases per
:12:21. > :12:24.year. It would make it more difficult to fight crime in the UK
:12:25. > :12:30.and less efficient. It would be more costly as well. Europol say an
:12:31. > :12:32.analysis of 600 high profile cases show that half of them had links to
:12:33. > :12:44.the UK. For foreign policy matters, there is
:12:45. > :12:49.the external action service, the EU 's diplomatic corps. She has been
:12:50. > :12:53.fated and slated since becoming the first ever EU foreign policy supremo
:12:54. > :12:57.three years ago. Besides fixing international crises, Cathy Ashton
:12:58. > :13:06.has been building be diplomatic corps, the external action service.
:13:07. > :13:09.Around 2000 people are stationed in foreign countries, like here in
:13:10. > :13:26.Switzerland. Richard Jones is Russell 's man here. First up, a
:13:27. > :13:33.meeting of diplomat 's from the member states. There is not a name
:13:34. > :13:39.for a group of ambassadors, but critics say it there is one too many
:13:40. > :13:47.here. Why can -- why can't they just represent what the EU is? That is
:13:48. > :13:52.what we used to do. The difficulty was that the president of the
:13:53. > :13:59.council was only in place for six months, and there is only so much
:14:00. > :14:03.what you can do for six months. Then it is over to the Swiss Parliament,
:14:04. > :14:07.for a chat with MPs. This meeting is quite important because next year in
:14:08. > :14:12.February Switzerland is going to hold a referendum on whether to
:14:13. > :14:17.limit the number of people who will come over from the European Union,
:14:18. > :14:23.which is a big deal for the EU. We respect Swiss sovereignty and the
:14:24. > :14:28.International decision-making. On the other hand, this is an important
:14:29. > :14:33.issue for the EU and an important part of our relationship. I see my
:14:34. > :14:41.job here is to set up a fax as we see them -- the facts, and the
:14:42. > :14:49.arguments that they would not hear of it did not have at delegation. If
:14:50. > :14:52.that is the EU 's relations with one country, here is where they have
:14:53. > :14:58.them but the whole world. This is the headquarters of the UN in
:14:59. > :15:05.Geneva. Working the corridors, the Italian diplomat who heads the
:15:06. > :15:11.mission here. Today, she is giving Europe's response to a not exactly
:15:12. > :15:16.thrilling report about development. Every word agreed by EU members in
:15:17. > :15:20.advance. I have the honour to speak on the behalf of the European Union
:15:21. > :15:25.as member states. Britain regards its relations with other countries
:15:26. > :15:30.pretty jealousy, and when I ask about us, she is pretty diplomatic.
:15:31. > :15:39.Sometimes it is a bit difficult. I think, in the end, there is one
:15:40. > :15:43.quality that the UK express here and I try to take advantage of that and
:15:44. > :15:50.they make of that my own policy, which is being pragmatic. Do not
:15:51. > :15:56.lose too much time in discussing what we can do or not. Let's just
:15:57. > :16:04.see it where is the final objective and try to reach that in the way
:16:05. > :16:07.that is possible and practical. Practicalities. Even the
:16:08. > :16:12.cheerleaders for the external action service admit it has been plagued
:16:13. > :16:16.with keeping troubles from admin issues to turf wars with other bits
:16:17. > :16:21.of the EU. So what is it really like working for it? Do you go for lots
:16:22. > :16:28.-- you go to lots of cocktail parties? Yes. And a lot of dinners.
:16:29. > :16:35.My evenings very often are it is. But this is work. I read you are
:16:36. > :16:40.meant to call an ambassador your Excellency. Do I have to call you?
:16:41. > :16:44.When I hear that, I try to turn around and see where the other
:16:45. > :16:49.diplomat is. Do you get a diplomatic passport and can jump the queue at
:16:50. > :16:55.the airport? I had one before. You do not jump the queue at the
:16:56. > :16:59.airport, it depends which airport. You get let off parking fines?
:17:00. > :17:08.Absolutely not. I paid my last speeding fine yesterday. You have a
:17:09. > :17:11.meeting to go to. Let's go. Ambassador is a pretty simple
:17:12. > :17:22.sounding job title. But what about some more exotic, like a rapporteur?
:17:23. > :17:32.In her 12th floor Brussels office, Gladys is doing what every MEP
:17:33. > :17:37.thinks of, she is a rapporteur. What? Let me explain. Here at the HQ
:17:38. > :17:41.of the European commission, they have written some new legislation
:17:42. > :17:45.concerning clinical drugs trials. The draft law then comes here to the
:17:46. > :17:48.European Parliament, where it is sent to the MEPs on the public
:17:49. > :17:54.health committee. And that is where Lotus comes in. As a rapporteur, it
:17:55. > :17:59.is her job to formulate the committee 's response to the
:18:00. > :18:03.legislation. You are making sure you know about the subject and you meet
:18:04. > :18:08.all the stakeholders involved, whether it be patients groups or
:18:09. > :18:10.consumers groups, whoever has an interest in that particular report.
:18:11. > :18:14.You'll meet with all of them and make sure that you hear all of their
:18:15. > :18:22.views and then you have to decide with technical and legal support
:18:23. > :18:26.where you want to report to go. It is a huge amount of extra work for
:18:27. > :18:30.me and the people who work with me. A lot of extra work, but it is worth
:18:31. > :18:35.it, because you can make a difference. You get paid any extra?
:18:36. > :18:39.Absolutely not. Everybody in the European Parliament gets paid
:18:40. > :18:42.exactly the same. It is not like Westminster, where you have
:18:43. > :18:45.ministers on a higher salary. Everybody gets the same. After all
:18:46. > :18:51.that work, but committee presents his report to the whole European
:18:52. > :18:54.Parliament for a final vote. And here is one of the most famous
:18:55. > :19:00.rapporteurs of all. A young Nick Clegg, who was the star of a ABC
:19:01. > :19:05.documentary will stop more than a decade ago, he got a law on the
:19:06. > :19:11.telecom sector passed in record time. There is intense competition
:19:12. > :19:17.between the different political groups to secure roles like this.
:19:18. > :19:20.Rapporteur ships are influential jobs. Jobs that do not have an
:19:21. > :19:25.equivalent in the UK political system. On the 12th floor, she is
:19:26. > :19:31.part minister, part committee selected chair, part political
:19:32. > :19:35.fixer. And where could you go if you wanted
:19:36. > :19:41.to find out even more about this stuff? Allow me to introduce you to
:19:42. > :19:49.the College of Europe. Cobbles, dreaming spires, students
:19:50. > :19:53.on bikes. It is Baruch, where you will find the EU 's very own
:19:54. > :20:06.Oxbridge, the College of Europe. At two o'clock, it is this professors
:20:07. > :20:17.lecture. At 4pm, it is a law class with this professor. Then more law
:20:18. > :20:25.with a different professor, this time in French. This academic
:20:26. > :20:29.hothouse is a private university, although a quarter of its funding
:20:30. > :20:34.comes from Brussels. Former students tend to get very good careers in
:20:35. > :20:38.deed. The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, studied here. It is
:20:39. > :20:43.where he left his wife, who is now a top lawyer. The Danish Prime
:20:44. > :20:47.Minister is an alumnus, and the EU ambassador to the UN, along with
:20:48. > :20:51.countless other people in high places, which has prompted a
:20:52. > :20:57.conspiracy theory that this place is a factory for federalist. I can
:20:58. > :21:01.understand if sometimes the impression is created that there is
:21:02. > :21:06.a mafia. But this is an unduly negative view, because there is a
:21:07. > :21:13.lot of idealism of the students. They want to be part of the
:21:14. > :21:16.solution, not the problem is, in Europe. Who are these bright young
:21:17. > :21:22.things? A country with the biggest number of students here is France,
:21:23. > :21:26.with 57. Closely followed by Italy. The right 25 from the UK, which is
:21:27. > :21:32.slightly less than the number from Poland, and about the same as the
:21:33. > :21:38.number from Turkey. Food, lodging and tuition costs 22,000 euros per
:21:39. > :21:45.year, but many students are somewhat sub by their countries governments.
:21:46. > :21:51.-- skippers are sponsored. So what is it like being a Brit here? He
:21:52. > :21:55.able to look at the European issues from an international standpoint is
:21:56. > :21:57.quite interesting. We have discussion classes where we talk
:21:58. > :22:01.about methods and theories of European integration, and it is
:22:02. > :22:06.interesting to hear how it looks from a Dutch point of view or a
:22:07. > :22:10.French point of view or a Turkish point of view, not just have the
:22:11. > :22:14.British point of view of the whole time. I imagine the conversations
:22:15. > :22:18.you have here are pretty different from the ones you have about Europe
:22:19. > :22:25.back home. It is different only in the sense that I do not have to
:22:26. > :22:28.defend Europe. I am pro European and back home, a lot of the time it is
:22:29. > :22:35.talking about British sovereignty and taking back power, whereas here
:22:36. > :22:42.EU can kind of put that back -- put it aside. Sometimes the robbers from
:22:43. > :22:45.further afield, like DOS from Australia -- Josh from Austria.
:22:46. > :22:50.These people are good to work with and I feel in the future they will
:22:51. > :22:54.be important contacts to have. This is as much about the networking as
:22:55. > :22:59.the content of the course. That is right. Everybody has to eat their
:23:00. > :23:04.meals together. You are stuck together and forced to go along. It
:23:05. > :23:09.is quite a good way to forge some international links. Is very
:23:10. > :23:16.students union? There is the student bar, lots of student parties and
:23:17. > :23:24.sport. This is the colleges all of them. Every year, a big-name
:23:25. > :23:30.addresses the student body. In 1988, it was Margaret Thatcher. We have
:23:31. > :23:35.not successfully rolled back in Britain only to see them reimposed
:23:36. > :23:39.at a European level with a European superstate exercising a new
:23:40. > :23:42.dominance from Brussels. This place is often seen as a finishing school
:23:43. > :23:45.for those that do want a European superstate, I do not think there is
:23:46. > :23:50.a conspiracy. It is more that if you were not a
:23:51. > :23:56.true you believe, why would you want to learn about it in such
:23:57. > :23:59.mindnumbing detail? -- a true TU believe question and that is where
:24:00. > :24:04.will finish. 2014 is a big year. In May, all of
:24:05. > :24:07.the seats of the parliament will be up for election, which heralds new
:24:08. > :24:10.changes. A new president of the Parliament, a new set of
:24:11. > :24:13.commissioners, who also have a new president, and yet another new
:24:14. > :24:18.president of the Council, who will chair the leaders summits. It can
:24:19. > :24:22.all seem a bit comfort letter from the outside. Sometimes it sits
:24:23. > :24:27.inside is for us look that way. Hopefully, after our journey, EU now
:24:28. > :24:34.feel like a bit of an insider to. Is that you now feel -- hopefully you
:24:35. > :24:44.now feel like an insider. We had a few power problems and
:24:45. > :24:48.trees brought down and I am afraid we have more of that, as we had to
:24:49. > :24:49.today. Christmas Eve, the stormy weather is set