Foreign relations

The foreign relations of the European Union are primarily a domain of the member-states, although the Union as a whole is beginning to exercise some influence through its Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). External representation is handled by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Commissioner for External Relations. The Commission is gaining greater representation in bodies such as the United Nations and G8. Policy is agreed on an inter-governmental basis however the general effect of the Union is also felt through Enlargement; the attraction of membership is taken as a major factor contributing to reform and stabilisation of the former Communist countries in Eastern Europe. The Union and its member states also contribute €43 billion in humanitarian aid; making it the largest humanitarian aid provider in the world. These factors influencing other countries are generally referred to as "soft power", as opposed to military "hard power".

Peter Mandelson, Commissioner of Trade, represents the bloc in the WTO

The European Commission has a representation at G8 summits.

On the world stage the Union is gaining greater influence and ability to speak as a bloc. All 27 member states are represented in the World Trade Organization (WTO) through its Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson. The latest WTO negotiation round has currently stalled, partly due to European refusal to curtail the agricultural subsidies unless other developed countries would also stop subsidising their agricultural producers. Europe has had a long history with the United States, being particularly close during the Cold War. The US initially supported the development of the European Community and contributed to the defence of the continent through NATO. However recently there has been friction between the United States and the modern European Union, for example over the Iraq war. Some individual member state governments have backed the USA over the war revealing weaknesses in forming a coherent foreign policy.

Enlargement

Initially were the six countries of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952. Today there are 27 European Union member states. There have been six enlargements, with the largest occurring on 1st May 2004, when 10 states joined, and the most recent occurring on 1st January 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined. In order to join the European Union, a state needs to fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria (named after the Copenhagen summit held in June 1993). These basically require a secular, democratic government, rule of law, and corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the EU Treaty, any enlargement must be agreed to by every current member state as well as the European Parliament.

EU enlargement 1952–2007

After EU institutional reforms, the next member state is likely to be Croatia

Turkey is an official candidate to join the European Union. Turkish European ambitions date back to the 1962 Ankara Agreements, and Turkey started preliminary membership negotiations on 3 October 2005. However, analysts believe 2015 is the earliest date the country can join the union because of the large number of economic and social reforms it has to complete, and because the 2007–13 budget does not take into account any of the considerable costs Turkey's accession will involve. Because of its occupation of 1/3 of Cyprus, as well as Turkey's geographic setting (only 3% of its territory lies within Europe), many argue that Turkey must not be accepted to the E.U. However, the Copenhagen criteria do not impose strict geographic conditions; EU member Cyprus is geographically an island in the Middle East. Lately, there have been reports on growing divisions between the EU and the Turkish government, , including discontent on the Turkish side, which feels it is capitulating to EU demands without receiving anything in return for its efforts.

Croatia is an official candidate country to join the EU and started accession negotiations in 2005. In June 2006, the EU officials projected that the accession of Croatia could happen in 2009. The closure of negotiations for all chapters of the acquis communautaire is expected towards the end of 2008, with the signing of the Accession treaty occurring in January or May 2009. Should this timetable be met, ratification by the existing Member States would be expected to take over 12 months, with accession possible some time in 2010 at the earliest.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became an official candidate in December 2005. Issues to be resolved include the controversy with Greece over use of the name Macedonia, and the country's poor relations with Bulgaria. Greece has clearly stated that it will veto the Republic's accession unless the name dispute is resolved.

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia are officially recognised as potential candidates. Norway and Switzerland have both previously applied for membership, but their applications were withdrawn following negative votes in separate referendums. Iceland is also touted as potential applicant but is opposed to the Common Fisheries Policy. These countries are sometimes said to be within the Eurosphere.

Institutions and bodies   The Berlaymont building of the European Commission in Brussels

The European Union is governed by a number of institutions, these primarily being the Commission, Council and Parliament. The European Commission acts as an executive or civil service of sorts. It is currently composed of one member from each state (currently 27) and is responsible for drafting all proposed law, a duty on which it maintains a monopoly in order to co-ordinate European Law. It also controls some agencies and the day-to-day running of the Union. Its president is nominated by the European Council then elected by the Parliament. The Council of the European Union (aka the Council of Ministers) forms one half of the Union's legislative branch (the other being the Parliament). It is composed of the national ministers responsible for the area of EU law being addressed, for example a law regarding agriculture would go to a Council composed of national agriculture ministers. This body should not be confused with the European Council below or the non-EU body, the Council of Europe. The body's presidency rotates between the member states every 6 months, though the current president member state co-operates with the previous and future president member state, to provide continuity.

The European Parliament is the only Union body composed of officials directly elected by the citizens of the EU member states. Every 5 years citizens in all member states vote across a few days for 785 "MEPs" who form the second half of the Union's legislative branch. Its members sit according to political groups rather than nationality and its president is elected by its members.

The Brussels seat of Parliament

The European Central Bank is controlling the monetary policy within the Eurozone, consisting of 13 member states. The ECB was established in 1998 and its headquarters is located in Frankfurt, Germany.
The Judicial branch of the Union consists primarily of the European Court of Justice composed of one judge nominated by each member-state with the president elected from among those nominees. Below the Court of Justice there is a lower court called the Court of First Instance created to lift some of the work load of the Court of Justice. There is also the European Court of Auditors which monitors the Union's accounts.
Another major body, though not an official institution, is the European Council, composed of the heads of government (along with the President of the European Commission) meeting 4 times a year. It shares its presidency with that of the Council of the European Union. There are also the two advisory committees; the Committee of the Regions and the Economic and Social Committee.

There is no official European capital, with institutions spread across a number of cities. However, Brussels is often considered the de facto capital as it hosts most of the primary institutions, including the Commission and the Council. The Parliament also has its second seat in the city. Strasbourg is the official seat of the European Parliament, meeting there for twelve week-long plenary sessions each year. Luxembourg City plays host to the Secretariat of the European Parliament as well as the European Court of Justice, the Court of First Instance and the European Court of Auditors. See also: Location of European Union institutions

Law The French and Dutch rejections of the proposed constitution have delayed the EUs much needed institutional reform

European Union law is the first and only example of a supranational legal framework. According to the European Court of Justice, in one of its earliest cases, it constitutes "a new legal order of international law". Sovereign nation states, by becoming EU members, pool their authority for the mutual social and economic benefit of their peoples. The principle of subsidiarity means that laws are passed at the regional level where they are more effective when member states take action by themselves, while EU law is supreme in its own fields. The two main treaties which form the basis of EU law are the Treaty of the European Community, or the Treaty of Rome from 1957, and the Treaty of the European Union, or the Maastricht treaty of 1992. The Treaty of Rome is the so called "first pillar" of the EU. The "European Community" refers to the competence of the EU to act in the social and economic arena. The Maastricht treaty formed the new European Union, and added two further "pillars". These are a common foreign and security policy and justice and home affairs. In both these fields a consensus among member states is needed to act.

EU law covers a range as broad as many member states themselves. Where a conflict arises between EU law and the law of a member state, EU law takes precedence, so that the law of a member state must be disapplied. Both the provisions of the Treaties, and EU regulations are said to have "direct effect" horizontally. This means private citizens can rely on the rights granted to them (and the duties created for them) against one another. For instance, an air hostess may sue her aeroplane company employer for sexual discrimination. The other main legal instrument of the EU, "directives", have direct effect, but only "vertically". Private citizens may not sue one another on the basis of an EU directive, since these are meant to be addressed to the member state. Directives allow some choice for member states in the way they translate a directive into national law. Once this has happened citizens may rely on the law that has been implemented. They may only sue the government "vertically" for failing to implement a directive correctly. An example of a directive is the Product liability Directive, which makes companies liable for death and any other injuries that occur.

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg

Economy   GDP (PPP) per capita year 2006   >$30,000      >$25,000      >$20,000      >$15,000      >$10,000

Taken as a single entity, the European Union has the largest economy in the world, with an estimated nominal GDP of €11.6 ($14.5) trillion in 2006 accounting for 35% of world GDP (the second largest economy is USA, with a GDP of $13.2 trillion). The OECD has projected that in 2007 the Eurozone will take over from the US as the driver of world economic growth with its 2.7% GDP growth compared to 2.1 percent in the US. In 2006, the EU claimed it is estimated 3.5 million jobs were created in the Eurozone. Germany, the largest economy within the EU, grew 2.7% in 2006 and is expected to grow at around 2.8% in 2007. After growing almost 3% as a whole in 2006 the EU economy is predicted to stay robust well into 2008 with average growth over those two years averaging over 2.5% growth. Many economists agree the EU has attained the capacity for higher growth than historically due to the EU's new member states potential to expand at a higher rate than traditional industrial powers of Europe. There are great national and intra-national economic disparities across the European Union, reflecting the different economies of its member states.

Even corrected for purchasing power, there is a 12-fold difference between the richest NUTS-2 & 3 regions, Frankfurt (€68,751 PPP per capita), Paris (€67,980 PPP per capita), and Inner London (€65,138 PPP per capita), and the poorest, Romania's Nord-Est (€5,070 PPP per capita) and Bulgaria's Severozapaden (€5,502 PPP per capita). Commuter effects distort GDP figures for urban areas with large commuting flows, but even when measured at a scale where such distortion does not apply (e.g. Ostösterreich compared to Romania Nord-Est), there is still a 5-to-1 difference between average Western European levels and the poorest regions of new member states.

Differences between member states are also significant. GDP per capita is often 10% to 25% higher than the EU average in the "older" western member states, but only comprises one-third to two-thirds of the EU average in most eastern member states, as well as in potential membership candidates such as Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey. By comparison, United States GDP per capita is 35% higher than the EU average: Japanese GDP per capita is approximately 15% higher. The European Union is the largest exporter in the world and the second largest importer. Internal trade between the member states is aided by the removal of barriers to trade such as tariffs and border controls. In the eurozone, trade is aided by adoption of an uniform currency. The European Union Association Agreement extends such similar economic policies to a much larger range of countries, partly as a so-called soft approach ('a carrot instead of a stick') to influence the politics in those countries.

172 companies of the Fortune Global 500 have their seats in EU countries - Nokia headquarters, Espoo, Finland.

Infrastructure Wind turbines in Douglas, Central Scotland

The EU has a policy to improve cross-border infrastructure, see Trans-European Networks. The European Union has legislated in the area of energy policy for many years, and evolved out of the European Coal and Steel Community. The concept of introducing a mandatory and comprehensive European energy policy was approved at the meeting of the European Council on October 27, 2005 in London. The EU currently imports 82% of its oil and 57% of its gas, making it the world's leading importer of these fuels. The EU has enacted a series of directives concerning wastewater treatment, drinking water and water resources management that have a profound impact on water and sanitation infrastructure investments in EU member countries (see EU water policy). In particular the wastewater directive is considered by the European Commission the most cost intensive European legislation in the environmental sector.

The EU directives related to waste management, such as the Landfill Directive and Waste Incineration Directive have also had a significant effect on practices in its member states. These relate to the improved use of resources by improving waste treatment according to the waste hierarchy, reducing landfilling of biodegradable waste and increasing recycling rates.
Member states have legally bound the EU to use 20 percent renewable energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels, by 2020. Within the same year, one-tenth of all cars and trucks in EU 27 shall be running on biofuels made from plants. This is considered to be one of the most ambitious moves among world powers to fight global warming.

Demographics The Fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 marked the start of a new era of growth in Eastern Europe, and eventually lead to new waves of EU enlargement

The population of the European Union is that of its member states, and changes with each accession (or, more rarely, secession). Each change in membership also affects demographic averages such as life expectancy and fertility rate. The total population of all member countries is approximately 494 million inhabitants as of January 2007. Expected short-term accessions (Croatia) will not substantially increase this figure. Growth in the short term is coming from net migration, since deaths outnumbered births in 2006 . At 1.52, the EU has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, well below the level required for replacement. After 2025 , this negative natural increase will probably exceed net immigration, and (discounting new accessions) population is expected to decline gradually.

Largest cities

The European Union is home to more global cities than any other region in the world. Over 16 cities with populations over one million inhabitants, counted in its city proper. However, different countries deal differently with large cities. The Greek city Athens, for example, has about 4 million inhabitants, but it has been divided into many municipalities making the city proper of Athens one of the smaller European capitals with about 800,000 inhabitants. Densely populated regions that have no single core but have emerged from the connection of several cites and are now encompassing large metropolitan areas are Rhine-Ruhr having approximately 10.5 million inhabitants (Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf et al.), Randstad approx. 7 million (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague et al.), Frankfurt Rhine Main Area approx. 4 million (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden et al.) and the Upper Silesian Industry Area approx. 3.5 million. (Katowice, Sosnowiec et al.).

City proper (2005)	mill.	Urban area (2005)	mill.	LUZ (2001)	mill.
London	7.5	Paris	10.1	London	11.6
Berlin	3.4	London	8.5	Paris	11.0
Madrid	3.1	Madrid	5.5	Madrid	5.6
Rome	2.5	Ruhr	5.3	Ruhr	5.4
Paris	2.2	Barcelona	4.5	Berlin	4.9
Bucharest	1.9	Milan	3.8	Barcelona	4.8
Hamburg	1.8	Berlin	3.7	Milan	3.9
Warsaw	1.7	Rotterdam	3.3	Athens	3.9
Budapest	1.7	Athens	3.2	Rome	3.7
Vienna	1.7	Naples	2.9	Hamburg	3.1

 

   

Barcelona	Berlin	London
Madrid	Milan	Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Languages   Translation booths in the EU Parliament are on the front-side walls.

The European Union has 23 official and working languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish. German is the most widely spoken mother tongue followed by English, French, and Italian. English is by far the most spoken foreign language. German and French follow next. 56% of EU citizens are able to hold a conversation in one language apart from their mother tongue. Most EU official languages belong to the Indo-European language family, except Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian, which belong to the Finno-Ugric language family, and Maltese, which is a Semitic language. Nearly all EU official languages are written in the Latin alphabet, except Bulgarian, written in Cyrillic, and Greek, written in Greek alphabet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          

The EU provides interpretation, translation and publication services in its official languages, but only legislation and important documents are produced in all 23 official languages; other documents are translated only into the languages needed. For internal purposes the EU institutions make their own language arrangements.The European Commission, for example, conducts its internal business in English, French and German, and goes fully multilingual only for public information and communication purposes. The European Parliament, on the other hand, has members who need working documents in their own languages, so its document flow is fully multilingual from the outset. In the EU, language policy is the responsibility of member states, but EU institutions, based on the "principle of subsidiarity", promote the teaching and dissemination of the languages of the member states, through a number of programmes, most prominently Lifelong learning Programme 2007-2013.

There are about 150 regional and minority languages, spoken by up to 50 million people. Catalan, Galician, and Basque, though not official languages, can be used in the communication of the citizens with the Council of the European Union, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee, the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman, as well as in the workings of the Committee of the Regions. Though regional and minorities languages can benefit from EU programmes, protection of linguistic rights is a matter for the member states.
A wide variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in EU countries. Turkish, Maghreb Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Ukrainian, and Balkan languages are spoken in many parts of the EU. Many older immigrant communities are bilingual in the local language and in that of their community. Migrant languages are not given formal status or recognition in the EU or in the EU countries and they are not covered by EU language teaching programmes.

Religion Predominant religious heritage in European countries      Protestantism      Roman Catholicism      Orthodox Christianity

The EU is an officially secular institution, hence neither God, nor Christianity was mentioned in its proposed constitution, in spite of pressure from the churches. Most of the Member States are secular states, although a small minority are not (the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Finland) and others have references to Christianity in their own constitutions while officially remaining secular (e.g. the Irish Republic). Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has promised the Pope that she will use her influence during Germany's EU presidency to try to include a reference to Christianity and God in a revived constitution. However, this has provoked opposition, not the least in the German press. A significant religious diversity exists among the populations of EU member states, reflecting their diverse history and culture. Nowadays, religion is on the decline in Europe, to an effect that not all populations have religious majorities. In the Czech Republic and Estonia, for example, a majority has no religious affiliation. The most common belief in the EU is Christianity, which can be roughly divided into Roman Catholicism, a wide range of Protestant churches and Eastern Orthodoxy.

The Christian churches have historically wielded much power in Europe. As a reaction during the enlightenment, secularism was developed as a political system, allowing for a rise in atheism and agnosticism.
Judaism has had a long history in Europe—there were Jewish communities in parts of Europe prior to the rise of the Roman Empire. As of 2002, the European Union had an estimated Jewish population of something over a million, including about 519,000 in France and about 273,500 in the United Kingdom. This compares with about 5 million Jews in Israel. In view of the history of persecution of Jews in Europe, antisemitism remains a matter of concern within the EU. For instance, a British parliamentary enquiry into antisemitism found that, though the prevailing opinion within and outside the Jewish community had, until recently, been that antisemitism existed only on the margins of society, there was evidence that this may have changed since 2000.
The recent influx of immigrants to the EU nations has brought in various religions of their native homelands, including Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Bahá'í Faith and Sikhism.

Education and science Main article: Education in the European Union The European Commission initiated the ERASMUS programme for higher education. It was established in 1987 and forms a major part of the EU Socrates II programme. Its name is an abbreviation of "European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students" and has been styled after the life of Desiderius Erasmus. It was incorporated into the Socrates programme when that programme was established in 1995. The Socrates programme ended in 1999 and was replaced with the Socrates II programme in 2000. Other educational programmes include Leonardo (secondary schools), Grundtvig (adult learning) and Arion (teaching decision-makers).

Lund University main building, built in 1882, Sweden

The stated aim of ERASMUS is to encourage and support academic mobility of higher education students and teachers within the European Union, the European Economic Area countries of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein as well as the candidate country Turkey. 2,199 higher education institutions are participating in ERASMUS across the 31 countries involved in the Socrates programme. 1.4 million students have already taken part.

The Ariane 5 is an expendable launch system

Member states of the EU are, along with other European nations and several international NGOs, signatories to the Bologna process. This is an attempt to create a European higher education area, by making academic degree standards and quality assurance standards more comparable and compatible throughout Europe. It is named after the place it was proposed, the University of Bologna with the signing, in 1999 , of the Bologna declaration by ministers of education from 29 European countries in the Italian city of Bologna. Governmental meetings have been held in Prague (2001), Berlin (2003) and Bergen (2005); the next meeting will take place in London in Spring 2007. The Galileo positioning system (or simply 'Galileo'), is a proposed Global Navigation Satellite System, to be built by the European Union and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA). The current project plan has the system as operational by 2010. Several other nations are joining the project co financing the development such as China, Israel, India, Morocco or South Korea. ESA is a non-EU organisation and its membership includes non-EU countries such as Switzerland and Norway (although both countries are within the EFTA). There are ties between those organisations, with various agreements in place and being worked on, to establish the legal status of ESA with regard to the EU. There are common goals between ESA and the EU, and ESA has an EU liaison office in Brussels. The EU is also sponsoring a large number of research projects aimed at academics and institutes, organised in frameworks of calls. From 2007 the EU has opened its 7th framework for grant applications.

Culture Supporters of European integration often appeal to a European historical narrative, typically including Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the feudalism of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, 19th century Liberalism and (sometimes) negative elements such as the World Wars. This history is assumed to be the source of European values. The status of Christianity as 'European heritage' is controversial, and has consequences for the accession of Turkey to the European Union. The European Convention rejected inclusion of a reference in the proposed European Constitution to Christianity and/or God. The text finally adopted in the Preamble reads: DRAWING INSPIRATION from the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe, from which have developed the universal values of the inviolable and inalienable rights of the human person, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law,...

One city is the European Capital of Culture in 2007 - Sibiu, Romania

Attitudes and values of the EU population are very diverse, influenced by social class, religion, level of education, and ethnicity, and they are not necessarily either European or national in character. The interests of member states are mainly economic and political in nature.

The cultural capitals are designated for a period of one year (Luxembourg)

There is no single culture or lifestyle common to the entire EU population. Some are local, national or regional. There are aspects of popular culture which can be found all over the EU, such as football, but none are limited to the EU (they may be equally influential in non-member states in Europe, and some are global). Cultural cooperation between member states has become a community competency since its inclusion in 1992 in the Maastricht Treaty. Actions taken in the cultural area by the European Union include the Culture 2000 7-year programme, the European Capital of Culture programme, the European Cultural Month event, the Media Plus programme, experimental actions and the awarding of various grants. The European Union gave grants to 233 cultural projects in 2004 and launched a webportal dedicated to Europe and Culture, responding to the European Council's expressed desire to see the Commission and the member states "promote the networking of cultural information to enable all citizens to access European cultural content by the most advanced technological means."

 

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Created by:	Salauddine Mohammed Faruque on July 25,2007, last updated on 12.10.2007