The need to generate strong economic blocs and obtain economic advantages regarding imports and exports, while promoting internal trade, has promoted the development of regionalization as a means of earning the same. This has developed other themes such as multi-corporations and globalization which is a concept through which regional markets combine efforts in a universal network with the effort to improve government ideas through communication, transportation and trade (Sim, et al. 2003). The concept is closely related to those of economic globalization which integrates national economies into the international economy (Robinson, 2001). Such integrations were then achieved through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows and migration (Thelen, 2003). One such network has been the European Union (EU) which has become a large bloc among European nations with its effects having a global perspective. Since 1958 with the first 6 member states, the European Union has existed with its members having now risen to 27 states. The Union was born as an economic and political union and linked its history to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and subsequently to the European Economic Community (EEC) following the Maastricht Treaty of 1993 (Craig, & Búrca , 2008). The EU has formulated its system into a hybrid system composed of supranational autonomous institutions, where member states are the decision-making bodies of intergovernmental negotiated decisions (Albi and Ziller, 2006). There are however opinions that the EU has been more of a concept of seeking balance rather than a common goal. Supporters of this vision see the Union as an attempt by member states to develop theories...... middle of paper. Journal ofEconomic Geography, 2(4), p.373-406. Available at: http://joeg.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1093/jeg/2.4.373.Robinson, W.I., 2001. Social theory and globalization: the rise of a transnational state. Theory and Society, 30(2), p.157-200. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/657872. Sim, L, Ong, S, Agarwal, A, Parsa, A, & Keivani, R 2003, 'Singapore's competitive as a global city: development strategy , Institutions and the entrepreneurial context”, Città, 20, 2, p. 115, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, accessed 19 May 2011. T-201/04, Microsoft v CommissionThe United Brands Continental BV v Commission [1978] ECR 207Thelen, K., 2003. The globalization paradox: employment relationships in Germany and beyond. Comparative Political Studies, 36(8), p.859-880. Available at: http://cps.sagepub.com/cgi/doi/10.1177/0010414003256111.