Flag
Commission seat	Brussels 50°54′N, 4°32′E
Official languages	23
Member states	27
Government	Sui generis supranationalism
Commission	José Manuel Barroso
Parliament	Hans-Gert Pöttering
Council	Frank-Walter Steinmeier
European Council	Germany
Formation
Treaty of Rome	25 March 1957
Maastricht Treaty	7 February 1992
Area
Total	4,324,782 km² (7th2) 1,669,807 sq mi
Water (%)	3,08
Population
2007 estimate	494,070,000 (3rd2)
Density	112 /km² (77th2) 289 /sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2006 (IMF) estimate
Total	$13,881 billion (1st2)
Per capita	$28,213 (14th2)
GDP (nominal)	2007 (IMF) estimate
Total	$15,849 billion (1st2)
Per capita	$31,173 (13th2)
Currency	15
Time zone	(UTC0 to +2)
Summer (DST)	(UTC+1 to +3)
Internet TLD	.eu

European Union

The European Union (EU) is a supranational and intergovernmental union of twenty-seven states and a political body. It was established in 1993 by the Treaty on European Union (The Maastricht Treaty) and is the de facto successor to the six-member European Economic Community founded in 1957. Since then new accessions have raised its number of member states, and competences have expanded.
The EU is the largest economic and political entity in the world, with a total population of 494 million and a combined nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of €11.6 (US$14.5) trillion in 2006. The Union is a single market with a common trade policy, a Common Agricultural/Fisheries Policy, and a Regional policy to assist underdeveloped regions. It introduced a single currency, the euro, adopted by thirteen member states. The EU initiated a limited Common Foreign and Security Policy, and a limited Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters.

Important EU institutions and bodies include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the European Central Bank, the European Court of Justice, and the European Parliament. Citizens of EU member states are also EU citizens: they directly elect the European Parliament, once every five years. They can invest, live, travel, and work in other member states (with some temporary restrictions on new member states). Passport control and customs checks at most internal borders were abolished by the Schengen Agreement.

History

Robert Schuman

The EU has evolved from a Western European trade body into the supranational and intergovernmental body that it is today. After the Second World War, an impetus grew in Western Europe for institutional forms of cooperation (through social, political and economic integration) between states, driven by the determination to rebuild Europe and eliminate the possibility of another World War. Eastern Europe, on the other hand, was largely within the Soviet sphere of influence, and only in the 1990s did the EU see central and Eastern European states as potential members. In 1946 Winston Churchill called for a "United States of Europe" (though without the inclusion of the UK). On 9 May 1950 the French foreign minister Robert Schuman presented Jean Monnet's proposal for the joint management of France's and West Germany's coal and steel industries. The proposal, known as the "Schuman Declaration", envisaged the scheme as "the first concrete step towards a European federation". It is considered to be the beginning of the creation of what is now the European Union, and led to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community by West Germany, France, Italy and the Benelux countries. This was accomplished by the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1951.

The first full customs union - the European Economic Community - was established by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 and implemented on 1st January 1958. This later changed to the European Community, which is now the "first pillar" of the European Union created by the Maastricht treaty. On 29 October 2004, EU member state heads of government and state signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. This was later ratified by 17 member states. However, in most cases ratification was based on parliamentary action, rather than popular vote, and the process faltered on 29 May 2005 when French voters rejected the constitution 55% to 45%. The French rejection was followed three days later by a Dutch one, in which 62% of voters rejected the constitution as well. Currently, EU leaders are working on a new text aimed to fulfill the some of the most central objectives from the rejected constitution in the form of a "simplified treaty".

The founding nations signing the Treaty of Rome in 1957

Geography 22 member countries are influenced by extensive coastlines and oceanic climate, (Mediterranean, Greece)

The territory of the European Union is formed by the territory of its twenty-seven member states, and expands with the accession of new members. It covers an area of 4,422,773 square kilometres (1,707,642 mi²). Extending northeast to Finland, northwest to Ireland, southeast to Cyprus and southwest to Portugal, it represents the seventh largest territory in the world by area. It is estimated that the coastline of the European Union is over 150,000 km long. The EU is not coterminous with Europe: significant parts of the continent (e.g. Switzerland, Norway, European Russia) are outside of the EU. The member states of the EU have land borders with 21 other nations. Several overseas territories and dependencies of various member states are also formally part of the EU (e.g. the Azores, Madeira, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe or the Canary Islands) while in other cases territories associated with member states are not part of the EU (e.g. Greenland, the Faroe Islands, most territories associated to the United Kingdom, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles or New Caledonia).

Including overseas territories of member states, the EU includes most types of climate from Arctic to tropical. Meteorological averages for the EU as a whole are therefore not meaningful. The majority of the population live in areas with a Mediterranean climate (southern Europe), a temperate maritime climate (Western Europe), or a warm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (in eastern member states).

Member states

On 23 July 1952 six founding members formed the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which was transformed into the European Community, later renamed the European Union, in waves of accession:

Austria, Poland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Rep.,Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Outermost, Regions, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Irish Rep., Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Lux., FYROM, Malta, Neth., Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom

Member states      Candidates

a) On 3 October 1990, the constituent Länder of the former East Germany acceded to the former West Germany, automatically becoming part of the EU. b) In 1985, following a referendum, Greenland, which was granted home rule by Denmark in 1979, left the European Community. Note that certain areas of the member countries are not part of the EU, like the Channel Islands, or the Faroe Islands. Areas that are far from Continental Europe on the other hand may be part of the EU: for instance, the Azores, and Madeira islands (Portugal), are represented by that country in EU affairs. Also the various French overseas departments are considered part of France, which is why areas as far from Europe as Martinique and French Guiana use the Euro. Year History of European Union membership Total 1957  Belgium  France  West Germanya  Italy  Luxembourg  Netherlands 6 1973  Denmarkb  Republic of Ireland  United Kingdom 9 1981  Greece 10 1986  Portugal  Spain 12 1995  Austria  Finland  Sweden 15 2004  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Estonia  Hungary  Latvia  Lithuania  Malta  Poland  Slovakia  Slovenia 25 2007  Bulgaria  Romania 27

Politics The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso

Supporters of the European Union argue that the growth of the EU has been a force for peace, democracy, and prosperity for its member states. However, others contend that peace in Europe since World War II is instead the product of other causes, such as the need for reconstruction after World War II, a collective temporary exhaustion with waging war, and the disparate reasons that caused dictatorships within Europe to end. The nature and future direction of the European Union itself is a key issue in European politics and a significant issue in the national politics of the member states. General issues include whether or not to belong to the EU, the impact of the EU on the member states, sovereignty issues, economic harmonisation issues, what the EU is becoming and should become (i.e. a single country in itself or a club of individual countries), the ultimate size of the Union, limits on new accession, the pace of new accessions, expansion in membership versus internal integration, a future as a political union versus a future as a free trade zone, the geographical limits of "Europe" for membership purposes, and the values and historical-cultural identity of the Union. Internal structure, procedures and policies are themselves subject to constant political debate.

Specific issues at present include the status and future of the constitutional treaty; enlargement on the Balkans and Turkish accession; problems of financial probity and democratic accountability; relative economic viability; revision of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact; and the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Financial Perspective for 2007–2013 was defined in 2005 when EU members agreed to fix the common budget to 1.045% of the European GDP. UK Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to review the British rebate, negotiated by Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Former French President Jacques Chirac declared this increase in the budget will permit Europe to "finance common policies" such as the Common Agricultural Policy or the Research and Technological Development Policy. France's demand to lower the VAT in catering was refused. Controversial issues during budget debates include the British rebate, France's benefits from the Common Agricultural Policy, Germany and the Netherlands' large contributions to the EU budget, reform of the European Regional Development Funds, and the question of whether the European Parliament should continue to meet both in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Chancellor Merkel of Germany (current holder of the presidency), and European Parliament president Pöttering

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE), commonly referred to as the European Constitution, is an international treaty intended to create a constitution for the European Union. The constitution was rejected by France and the Netherlands, where referenda were held causing other countries to postpone or halt their ratification procedures. The constitution now has an uncertain future. As of February 2007, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have ratified the constitutional treaty. Finland, Germany and Slovakia have completed parliamentary procedures required for ratification. Spain and Luxembourg held referenda, thus in those member states the constitution was ratified by popular vote.
The 'pillar' structure created by the Treaty of Maastricht moved the older policies and activities into the 'first pillar, labeled the 'European Communities'. The more controversial new policy areas - foreign policy, security and defence, asylum and immigration, and judicial co-operation - were moved into two new 'pillars'.

European Economic Community

The euro is adopted by 13 countries and is used by 315 million people

A prominent policy goal of the European Union is the development and maintenance of an effective single market. Significant efforts have been made to create harmonised standards claimed by their proponents to bring economic benefits through creating larger, more efficient markets. Since the Treaty of Rome, policies have implemented free trade of goods and services among member states, and continue to do so. This policy goal was further extended to three of the four EFTA states by the European Economic Area, EEA. Common EU competition law restricts anti-competitive activities of companies (through antitrust law and merger control) and member states (through the State Aids regime). The EU promotes free movement of capital between member states (and other EEA states). The members have a common system of indirect taxation, the VAT, as well as common customs duties and excises on various products.

New member states expect investments financed with EU Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds, (motorway in Katowice, Poland)

They have a Common Agricultural Policy (with the Common Fisheries Policy) and the structural and cohesion funds, which improve infrastructure and assist disadvantaged regions. Together they are known as the cohesion policies. The EU also has funds for emergency financial aid, for instance after natural disasters. The funding extends to programmes in candidate countries and other Eastern European countries, as well as aid to many developing countries, through programmes such as Phare, TACIS, ISPA. The EU also funds research and technological development, through four-year Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development.In a more political sense, the EU attempts to create - with much controversy - a sense of European citizenship and European political life. That includes freedom for citizens of the EU to vote and to stand as candidates in local government and European Parliament elections in any member state. The European Parliament is now attempting to create pan-European political parties, and almost all members have joined at least a federation of national political parties.

Common Foreign & Security Policy 

Javier Solana, the High Representative forthe CFSP (l.) and United States Secretaryof State Condoleezza Rice

Defence and security are traditionally matters of national sovereignty. EU policies in this area were established as the second of the three pillars in the Maastricht treaty of 1992. The Common Foreign and Security Policy or CFSP were further defined and broadened in the Amsterdam Treaty of 1997. It superseded the European Political Cooperation. The CFSP acknowledges NATO being responsible for territorial defence of Europe and "peace-making". In 1999 the European Council took over responsibilities for the implementation of peace-keeping missions (EUFOR in Bosnia Herzegovina, Congo) and policing of treaties. The supervision is coordinated by the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana. The European Security and defence Policy is an element of the CFSP and stipulated the framing for policies that could deal with humanitarian and rescue tasks, and tasks of combat forces. It includes the creation of a 60,000-member European Rapid Reaction Force for peacekeeping purposes, an EU military staff, a European Defence Agency and an EU satellite centre (for intelligence purposes).

Police and Judicial Co-operation

The third of the three pillars of the European Union is focusing on cooperation in criminal matters, including sharing of intelligence (through Europol and the Schengen Information System), agreement on common definition of criminal offences and expedited extradition procedures. It is the EU instrument of law enforcement and combating racism.

It was created as the Justice and Home Affairs pillar in the Treaty of Maastricht; subsequently the Treaty of Amsterdam transferred the areas of illegal immigration, visas, asylum, and judicial co-operation to the integrated first (European Community) pillar. The term Justice and Home Affairs now covers these integrated fields as well as the intergovernmental third pillar.

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