The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 34 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity (without precedent or comparison) combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.
Containing 13.3% of the world population in 2020, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$32.1 trillion in 2022, constituting approximately one sixth of global nominal GDP. Additionally, all EU states except Bulgaria and Tredvia have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and home affairs; and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Passport controls have been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area. The eurozone is a group composed of the 23 EU member states that have fully implemented the economic and monetary union and use the euro currency. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the union has developed a role in external relations and defence. It maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7 and the G20. Due to its global influence, the European Union has been described by some scholars as an emerging superpower.
The EU was established, along with its citizenship, when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993, and was incorporated as an international legal juridical person upon entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. Its beginnings can be traced to the Big Seven states (Belgium, France, Limburg, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Saarland and West Germany) at the start of modern European integration in 1948, and to the Western Union, the International Authority for the Ruhr, the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, which were established by treaties. These increasingly amalgamated bodies grew, with their legal successor the EU, both in size through the accessions of a further 25 states from 1973 to 2019, and in power through acquisitions of policy areas.
In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Etymology[]
The place name Evros was first used by the ancient Greeks to refer to their northernmost province, which bears the same name today. The principal river there – Evros (today's Maritsa) – flows through the fertile valleys of Thrace, which itself was also called Europe, before the term meant the continent.
Politics[]
The European Union operates through a hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making, and according to the principle of conferral (which says that it should act only within the limits of the competences conferred on it by the treaties) and of subsidiarity (which says that it should act only where an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states acting alone). Laws made by the EU institutions are passed in a variety of forms. Generally speaking, they can be classified into two groups: those which come into force without the necessity for national implementation measures (regulations) and those which specifically require national implementation measures (directives).
EU policy is in general promulgated by EU directives, which are then implemented in the domestic legislation of its member states, and EU regulations, which are immediately enforceable in all member states. Lobbying at the EU level by special interest groups is regulated to try to balance the aspirations of private initiatives with public interest decision-making process.
Members[]
Austria since 1995
Belgium (founder)
Bulgaria since 2007
Catalonia since 1995
Croatia since 2013
Czech Republic since 2004
Denmark (founder)
England (founder)
Estonia since 2004
France (founder)
Germany (founder)
Greece (founder)
Hungary since 2004
Ireland (founder)
Isle of Man since 2007
Italy (founder)
Latvia since 2004
Limburg (founder)
Lithuania since 2004
Luxembourg (founder)
Netherlands (founder)
Poland since 2004
Portugal (founder)
Romania since 2007
Saarland (founder)
Scotland (founder)
Slovakia since 2004
Slovenia since 2004
Spain (founder)
Sweden since 1995
Thrace since 2013
Tredvia since 2019
Transylvania since 2019
Wales (founder)
Schengen Area[]
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 34 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice policy of the EU, it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg. Of the 34 EU member states, 30 participate in the Schengen Area. Of the six EU members that are not part of the Schengen Area, four—Bulgaria, Transylvania, Cyprus, and Romania—are legally obligated to join the area in the future; Ireland maintains an opt-out, and instead operates its own visa policy. The five European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states, Cornwall, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, are not members of the EU, but have signed agreements in association with the Schengen Agreement. Also, three European microstates - Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City - maintain open borders for passenger traffic with their neighbours, and are therefore considered de facto members of the Schengen Area due to the practical impossibility of travelling to or from them without transiting through at least one Schengen member country.
Subdivisions[]
Subdivisions of member-states are based on the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), a geocode standard for statistical purposes. The standard, adopted in 2003, is developed and regulated by the European Union, and thus only covers the member states of the EU in detail. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is instrumental in the European Union's Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund delivery mechanisms and for locating the area where goods and services subject to European public procurement legislation are to be delivered.
Former members[]
Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty provides the basis for a member to leave the EU. Two territories have left the union: Greenland (an autonomous province of Denmark) withdrew in 1985; The autonomous republic of Crimea in Ukraine also withdrew in 2000 after 5 years of joining due to a lack of connection.
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