Reading Time: 3 minutes Originally the European Economic Community was just that – a community that enabled the easy trade between the member states set up in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. Given that Europe is a fairly small area geographically with multiple land borders, it made sense to simplify the business of doing business with neighbours. Over time it has expanded its jurisdiction considerably with common laws, common currency and even the talk of a common army. There is also a national anthem for the European Union (as it became in 1993) and which, this year, at the start of the new Parliament Session, the Brexiter Candidates from the UK refused to honour, preferring instead to turn their backs stating that the EU was a collation of nations, not a nation-state in its own right.