European Union
| Dictionary: European Union |
(Abbr. EU)
An economic and political union established in 1993 after the ratification of the Maastricht Treaty by members of the European Community and since expanded to include numerous Central and Eastern European nations. The establishment of the European Union expanded the political scope of the European Economic Community, especially in the area of foreign and security policy, and provided for the creation of a central European bank and the adoption of a common currency, the euro.
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Flag of the European Union.
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| Investment Dictionary: European Union - EU |
A group of European countries that participates in the world economy as one economic unit and operates under one official currency, the euro. The EU's goal is to create a barrier-free trade zone and to enhance economic wealth by creating more efficiency within its marketplace.
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The current formalized incarnation of the European Union was created in 1993 with 12 inital members. Since then, many additional countries have since joined. The EU has become one of the largest producers in the world, in terms of GDP, and the euro has maintained a competitive value against the U.S. dollar.
EU and non-EU members must agree to many legal requirements in order to trade with the EU member states.
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| Financial & Investment Dictionary: European Union (EU) |
Group established in 1992 by the European Union Treaty (also known as the Maastricht Treaty) and amended by various treaties thereafter. Initially, the EU consisted of six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, Austria, Finland, and Sweden in 1995. The largest expansion occurred in 2004 with 10 new countries joining. They are: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Others are expected to join as well. At its core the EU is a group of democratic countries working together on economic, judicial, and security issues. It has taken several steps toward a more unified Europe. For example, in 1992, the EU made the decision to move toward a single European currency, known as the Euro. The EU is governed by a five-part institutional system, including the European Commission, the EU Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice, and the Court of Auditors, which monitors EU budget spending. europa.eu.int/index_en.htm.
| Banking Dictionary: European Union |
Group of countries taking part in the economic unification of Europe. (There were 25 countries in the European Union in 2004). The term also refers to the pan-European governmental and social agencies involved in inter-governmental cooperation: the European Commission (based in Brussels, Belgium), which oversees Europe's economic and monetary unification; the European Parliament, directly elected by citizens of member countries; the Council of Ministers, consisting of the foreign ministers of EU member governments; the European Court of Justice, the court of last resort for interpreting EU treaties; and the Court of Auditors, which monitors government budgets of EU countries. The 1993 Maastricht treaty gave the European Parliament equal decision-making powers with the Council and Commission.
| Business Encyclopedia: European Union |
The European Union is an ever-evolving alliance of fifteen European countries designed to foster economic cooperation among its members. With its roots stretching back to just after World War II, this alliance has the ultimate goal of unifying the economic interests of these countries in order to reduce the chance of widespread armed conflict returning to the European continent.
History
In the early 1950s, Germany and France spear headed the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community. At this time, West Ger many was in the process of rebuilding its war ravaged steel industry under the direction of the United States and Great Britain. This was an understandable source of concern for France, as German industrial might had been used against the French in the two world wars earlier in the century. Consequently, a federation that would govern these important economic resources won the approval of both the French and Germans. They were also joined by Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands as the original six founding nations of what would eventually be come the European Union.
The European Coal and Steel Community was later followed by the establishment of the European Economic Community under the Treaty of Rome, which was signed by the same six countries in 1957. This treaty established the framework for the six member countries to pursue an economic and monetary union by creating a single market to further their economic development. The European Economic Community established a customs union for re moving trade barriers, such as tariffs and quotas, between member countries over a period of several years. Also, common external tariffs were phased in for goods entering the union.
The single market established by the European Economic Community also opened the door for the free movement of workers, businesses, and capital throughout the community. Border stops and customs checks were eliminated, companies expanded across national borders, and financial institutions expanded with them.
The Euro
To further facilitate trade within this single market, European leaders felt a single currency should be created to eliminate foreign-exchange hurdles encountered by companies doing business across European borders. After several intervening rounds of negotiations and agreements, the Treaty on European Union was signed in Maastricht in December 1991. The European Union was formally established as the successor to the European Economic Community, and the treaty laid the groundwork for the completion of the economic and monetary union by calling for a new European currency.
The European Union introduced this new currency on January 1, 1999, christening it the "euro." Like many other changes implemented by the European Union, the euro was not launched without difficulties. By the time the euro was introduced in 1999, nine more countries had joined the original six members. The European Union had added Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to its ranks in 1973; Greece in 1981; Portugal and Spain in 1986; and Austria, Finland, and Sweden ratified membership in 1995. During the launch of the euro, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark all chose to "opt out" of participation due to political pressures in each country. One other member, Greece, failed to satisfy the economic criteria for convergence, which required members of the "euro zone" to meet targets for price stability, long-term interest rates, government budget deficits, and government debt. Consequently, the conversion to the euro was initiated in only eleven of the fifteen member states in 1999.
Transactions in member states beginning in 1999 could be denominated in euros. The actual euro currency and coins will begin circulation in 2002. In the "interim period," transactions can be carried out in either euros or the former national currencies of the member states.
Governance
The governance of the European Union is quite complex. The European Commission, based in Brussels, introduces legislation and negotiates all trade agreements between the European Union and other countries. The five largest countries in the union appoint two members and other countries one member to the European Commission. The European Parliament, which is the only elected body, also has legislative and veto authority in some specific areas. The Council of Ministers, comprised of civil servants from each country, acts on the legislation proposed by the European Commission. Most decisions are by a majority vote, but some require unanimity.
Monetary policy in the countries adopting the euro is governed by the European Central Bank. The primary mission of this independent institution is to maintain stable prices. It is also responsible for foreign-exchange operations and managing foreign reserves in the euro zone. Although it is a relatively new currency, the euro has joined the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen as a reserve currency held by central banks.
International Trade
The fifteen members of the European Union in 1999 have a combined population 40 percent larger than that of the United States, creating an attractive business marketplace without internal trade barriers. Many American companies—from Ford, which sells 15 million vehicles a year in Europe, to Coca-Cola, Inc., which serves 209 million of its beverages to European customers every day—have a long-established presence in Europe. Other companies, such as software giant Microsoft, have entered the European market in recent years and been successful in the European Union's single market. If the European Union continues to add new members, it may be only a matter of time before the European marketplace begins to challenge the United States as the premier business market in the world.
European companies, with their enhanced size due to expansion across Europe, have also set their sights across the Atlantic. The purchases of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz and Amoco by British Petroleum in the late 1990s were but two of the many examples of large European companies strengthening their positions in the American marketplace. With the majority of foreign investment in the United States coming from members of the European Union, economic interests have continued to become more intertwined as multi-national companies now operate on both sides of the Atlantic.
Future Expansion
In the future, the size of the European Union will likely expand because numerous other countries, primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, have expressed an interest in joining the union. Many of these countries are in the process of making the structural changes needed to meet the criteria for membership in the European Union. Admitting these countries would add to the European Union's stature in global trade negotiations, further the cause of social stability in the region, and add yet another chapter to the story of this dynamic union.
Bibliography
Dinan, Desmond, ed. (1998). Encyclopedia of the European Union. (1998). Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
How Does the European Union Work?, 2d ed. (1998). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.
Leonard, R. L. (1998). The Economist Guide to the European Union. London: The Economist in association with Profile.
Redmond, John, and Rosenthal, Glenda G., eds. (1998). The Expanding European Union: Past, Present, Future. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
[Article by: DAVID MCGRADY]
| Geography Dictionary: European Union |
A free trade area comprising Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK. Designed initially as an economic unit, the European Union is now attempting uniformity in social as well as economic policies. see common agricultural policy.
| Political Dictionary: European Union |
In November 1993 the official title of the European Community (EC) was changed to European Union (EU) as a result of ratification of the Maastricht treaty by member states' parliaments. The EC was properly known as the European Communities, in the plural. It began as three legally distinct but related organizations: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the European Economic Community (EEC, sometimes referred to as the ‘Common Market’). In practice the institutions and politics of the three have become increasingly indistinct, a trend formalized at Maastricht.
The EU is the most thoroughgoing example of regional economic and political integration. As an international organization it goes beyond traditional intergovernmentalism and has substantial elements of supranationality, with policy processes often referred to as multi-level governance. The various Union/Community treaties contain fairly open-ended if imprecise commitments to ‘ever closer union’ among the (currently) twenty-five member states.
At the end of the Second World War, European economic and political unity was seen as an important element of post-war reconstruction, and was therefore supported by the United States. As a wholesale abrogation of national sovereignty seemed a distant reality, efforts focused on the functionalist approach to integration as expressed in Jean Monnet's Schumann Plan. Monnet's guiding idea was that war between France and Germany must never again disrupt the politics and prosperity of the continent. Italy and the three Benelux states joined the ensuing negotiations.
The result was the ECSC (Treaty of Paris, signed 18 April 1951, implemented July 1952) among the six, which sought to integrate the coal and steel sectors in such a way that the parties could no longer maintain an independent capacity to make war on each other. Its economic success provided impetus for further and broader integration, despite the failure of the European Defence Community in 1954. Plans for integration across all economic sectors culminated in the Treaty of Rome establishing the EEC and Euratom, signed on 25 March 1957 by the six ECSC members with effect from 1 January 1958. The treaty established a common assembly and Court for all three, and a Commission and Council of Ministers for the two new communities. The United Kingdom had declined involvement, opting to establish a rival organization, the European Free Trade Area (EFTA).
The EEC quickly became the focal point of efforts at European integration. Where the six states could agree, a concrete timetable for policy integration was specified. This led to the fairly rapid establishment of a customs union, a common external tariff, and a nascent common trade policy. Where agreement had been difficult, the Treaty was vague about further steps towards integration. In this way the Treaty has ensured that the integration process has never progressed unless it was in line with member states' national interests.
The Treaty also put forward a long series of policy questions for negotiation among the members. It was hoped that the tangible economic benefits of common policies would provide ongoing impetus for the integration process. It was the responsibility of the Commission to develop legislative proposals aimed at common EC policies, integrating or replacing the policies of individual member states. Agriculture had been of great concern to the French government, being specifically mentioned in the Treaty as a priority, and 1962 Regulation 25 was adopted establishing a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The EU also developed its role in external relations through its assistance agreements with former French colonies, the Yaoundé Accords of 1963, succeeded 1975 by the first Lomé Convention.
The Commission proposed legislation and sought approval from the Council of Ministers which represented the member states. The European Court had ruled that EU laws would take precedence over national laws. From this provision stems many of the Union's supranational characteristics. Policy decisions therefore may pose great difficulties for the negotiating states as fundamental national interests are frequently at stake.
The three Communities came to be increasingly indistinguishable over time. The Merger Treaty of 1965 gave all three a common Commission and Council. The EU has also undergone a considerable expansion of membership from six to twenty five, with the accession of the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Denmark in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986, Sweden, Austria, and Finland in 1995, and Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004.
If membership has widened, the policy jurisdiction of the EU has ‘deepened’ dramatically. The monumental Single Market Programme was contained in the Single European Act (SEA) and has led to the rapid transborder integration of markets and corporate structures in member economies. Regional and social policy dimensions have been developed (if hesitantly, largely due to UK resistance), and important elements of foreign and defence policy cooperation are enshrined in the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) process. The most radical step so far, the successful adoption of the Euro as single EU currency (process completed 1 January 2002, though initially excluding Denmark, Sweden, and the UK), and a single monetary policy run by a European Central Bank, has removed core elements of macroeconomic policy-making from national jurisdiction (see Economic and Monetary Union). The introduction of the Euro has also accelerated the process of market integration, building on the single market programme. This process of policy deepening has been aided by institutional reforms contained in amendments to the Treaties as with the SEA of 1986 and the Treaty of Maastricht. The more recent treaties of Amsterdam (1997) and Nice (2000) modestly extended this process of institutional reform, and currently there is a ‘Constitutional Convention’ beginning work on institutional innovations perceived as necessary in the face of both deepening and especially the imminent widening of the membership.
By keeping the end goal indeterminate, ‘Euroenthusiasts’ and ardent supporters of national autonomy alike have usually been able to strike compromises which are understood to be in the common interest of all. This propels the process of integration, despite frequent turmoil and disagreement, and has seen the EU emerge as an increasingly ‘state-like’ entity in the international system. As such the EU is poised to alter traditional conceptions of sovereignty and international organizations. However, the EU finds itself post-Euro at a crucial juncture. It has taken on many state-like attributes in a context of institutional underdevelopment. This fuels dilemmas for EU authorities and member states alike. A single currency, CFSP, and continued enlargement have serious implications for traditional notions of national policy-making and sovereignty, while the EU clearly lacks a strong sense of collective identity at the level of civil society, often portrayed as democratic deficit. Economic adjustment processes resulting from integration are often difficult and the costs are unequally distributed across members and regions. These challenges come in the context of challenges to state capacity in the form of new security dilemmas and global economic integration, which EU-level policy is at least partially meant to address. Institutional underdevelopment awards EU authorities few of the policy mechanisms which have been eroded at the national level. The EU will need collectively to lend more substance to the notion of ‘ever closer union’.
— Geoffrey R. D. Underhill
| US History Encyclopedia: European Union |
European Union (European Community). On 1 November 1993 the European Community (EC), a political and economic confederation of European countries, officially became the European Union (EU). The EU consists of three institutions: the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM), and the European Economic Community (EEC). Its fifteen members are France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (the original "Six" from the 1950s); Great Britain, Denmark, and Ireland (joined 1973); Greece (1981); Portugal and Spain (1986); and Austria, Finland, and Sweden (1995).
The EU's total area is about one-third the size of the United States, but its population in 2000 was 377.6 million, compared to 284.2 million for the United States. Their economies are of roughly comparable size. In 2000 the EU accounted for 18.2 percent of world imports and 17.2 percent of world exports, while its GDP totaled $7.8 trillion. The American figures were 23.9 percent and 15.7 percent with a GDP of $9.9 trillion. Both are also important economic partners. In 2000 the EU's trade with the United States was valued at $394.8 billion and made up 19.2 percent of its total imports and 24.7 percent of its total exports, while American trade with the EU was worth $385.2 billion and accounted for 18.1 and 21.1 percent, respectively. During the same year the EU also made $802.7 billion in direct investments in the United States and received $573.4 billion in return.
Institutions
The EU has four major governing organs. The European Commission, located in Brussels, proposes policies and legislation, is responsible for administration, and enforces both decisions made by European institutions and the provisions of European treaties. Including the commission president, twenty commissioners with individual portfolios serve five-year terms. They are appointed by the national governments but act independently of them. The Council of the European Union, consisting of ministers from each member state, coordinates intergovernmental policies and enacts binding legislation. Depending on the agenda, different types of national minister will attend each council meeting. Most decisions within it take place as a result of a majority vote (normally weighted to reflect the size and importance of the member state), although some issues, such as foreign policy, taxation, and the environment, still require unanimity. The council has a rotating presidency with a six-month term that ends with a meeting of all fifteen heads of state or government. It holds most of its meetings in the country that has the EU presidency. The European Parliament, which meets in Strasbourg, currently consists of 626 members elected for five-year terms. Members are seated by party group (such as Socialist, Christian Democrat, and Green) and since 1979 have been chosen in direct elections. The Parliament's key powers include approving or amending the EU budget submitted by the commission and publicly debating the work of the other governing organs. It may also censure the commission. The Court of Justice, which is located in Luxembourg and has fifteen judges, determines whether treaties in the European Union are being implemented and are in accordance with Union law. Both its judgments and EU law as a whole are binding on all member states.
European and American Perspectives on Integration
Although proposals for European integration go back as far as the Middle Ages, the origins of the present EU date from World War II. Many Europeans believed that for their continent to experience a political and economic revival, the national rivalries that characterized the past had to give way to greater international cooperation. However, ever since the 1940s there has been disagreement on what methods to utilize. "Federalists" like the Italian politician Altiero Spinelli advocated creating a unified European state as soon as possible. The Frenchman Jean Monnet and other "(neo)functionalists" believed that the consolidation of important industrial sectors across national lines would promote integration in all fields. Still another perspective, traditionally strong in Great Britain and Scandinavia but universally evident, advocated greater intergovernmental cooperation but remained wary about supranational organizations that would limit sovereignty. These divergent opinions have ensured that a mélange of approaches has characterized the road to the EU.
Since 1945 American policymakers have consistently supported European integration both publicly and privately, even if their active interest in promoting it waned dramatically starting in the 1960s. According to Geir Lundestad, several considerations informed their thinking. These include the belief that the new European institutions represented a healthy attempt to emulate the "American model" based around federalism, democracy, and free markets and also the idea that integration would promote a modernized Europe that was more efficient economically and less troubled by nationalist rivalries. More concretely, integration would reduce the burden of American military and economic commitments to Europe. Above all, a unified (Western) Europe could play an important role in containing both the Soviet Union and Germany. The United States also has promoted European integration for so long now that to some extent this policy has become traditional, irrespective of other considerations. Furthermore, the desire of Europeans themselves to work toward unity has been a tremendous influence on American policy as well.
American Support for European Integration During the 1940s and 1950s
During World War II, the Roosevelt administration feared that any moves toward European integration would contribute to a division of the world into political and economic blocs. However, the onset of the Cold War dramatically changed the official American attitude. Fear that communists might come to power in Western European countries due to postwar economic hardship led the Truman administration to propose the Marshall Plan in 1947. This initiative led to some modest steps toward European integration, especially the establishment of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) to administer Marshall aid and work for the reduction of tariffs. The Marshall Plan also helped to determine the geographic limits of integration until the 1990s since the negative Soviet reaction cemented the division of the continent. To the Truman administration's frustration, little further progress came until 1950, despite the intensification of the Cold War. The major reason was that Great Britain, at the time the most important state in Western Europe politically and economically, opposed all plans for supranational organizations.
The creation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 made integration seem more urgent than ever. Under pressure from Washington but also motivated by its own interests, the French government and its unofficial advisor Monnet now assumed a leading role. The "Schuman Plan" for a European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), developed by Monnet and announced by Foreign Minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950, ensured that German heavy industry would be used only for peaceful purposes, significantly upgraded the international status of the Federal Republic, and marked the start of postwar Franco-German cooperation. The Truman administration greeted it with enthusiasm. The ECSC, which came into existence in 1952, also set the pattern for further initiatives. It brought together for the first time the "Six" and created the four basic governing organs that characterized later integration. After initial hesitations, the Truman administration also gave its support to Monnet's plan for a "European Defense Community" (EDC) that would prevent the creation of an independent West German army. Although in December 1953 Secretary of State John Foster Dulles even threatened an "agonizing reappraisal" of the American security commitment to Western Europe if the EDC Treaty were not ratified, the French National Assembly rejected it on 30 August 1954, largely because of misgivings about surrendering the national army. The Eisenhower administration later gave its support to the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) in 1958. These two institutions and the ECSC, at first collectively called the "European Economic Community," were officially fused into the EC in 1967. They went a long way toward fulfilling Washington's desire for integrated Western European structures that would help contain the Soviet Union and safely incorporate the Federal Republic.
Troubled Relations Between the United States and the European Economic Community
Nonetheless, doubts soon arose about whether European integration was compatible with American leadership in Western Europe. Starting in 1958 French President Charles de Gaulle challenged United States political predominance by demanding a coequal role for France with it and Britain within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He also pursued an increasingly independent policy on issues like Berlin, the Vietnam War, relations with communist states, nuclear weapons, and British membership in the European Economic Community (which to the chagrin of American policymakers he vetoed in 1963). American leaders tried to accommodate de Gaulle while rejecting his aspirations to leadership, but already during the Kennedy administration they began to stress the Atlantic character of European-American relations. Moreover, starting in the late 1950s negative American payment balances (at first due to high levels of American foreign investment and military aid but by the late 1960s also involving trade deficits) led to increasing worries about economic competition from the "Six." Washington responded by intensifying the process of reducing tariffs between industrialized states within the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and in 1961 helped create an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with American and Canadian membership to replace the OEEC. Since the mid-1960s, the United States and the EU have been involved periodically in trade disputes involving a variety of agricultural and industrial products.
Even though National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger proclaimed 1973 the "Year of Europe," the Nixon administration reevaluated the traditional policy of American support for European integration in light of these political and economic challenges. Henceforth the United States would no longer actively promote new initiatives for supranational integration, although it would not oppose further efforts by the Europeans themselves. Although Jimmy Carter criticized the Nixon and Ford administrations' neglect of the European allies and in January 1978 became the first president to visit the European Commission in Brussels, in practice the United States' main priority had become protecting its own national interests. This became quite clear during the 1980s, when the process of European integration revived after the relative stagnation of the previous decade. The negotiations on the "Single European Act" in 1985–1986, which aimed at the creation of a fully integrated European market by 1992, led to worried speculation in the United States about a "Fortress Europe." In addition, the Reagan administration became involved in a series of disputes over commercial policy with the EC, with which the United States had run a trade deficit starting in 1984.
Relations Since 1989
By 1989 an improvement in relations was in sight, however. The end of the Cold War and the reunification of Germany made expanded European structures seem the best way of providing stability for the entire continent. In addition, by 1990 the United States had a positive trade balance with the EC again but was becoming worried about economic relations with both Japan and China. President George H. W. Bush gave increased attention to the American relationship with the EC. The 1990 Transatlantic Declaration set up a mechanism for regular consultations and reaffirmed the desire of both sides to strengthen their partnership. The Bush administration reached compromises on many of the economic disputes that had arisen as a result of the Single European Act. Moreover, it strongly supported the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that created the EU in 1993 with both an Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and a Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) among its future goals. In 1995 the United States and the EU agreed on a "New Transatlantic Agenda" that committed them to active cooperation in roughly a hundred policy areas. The EMU was realized with the introduction of a common currency, the euro, on 1 January 1999, at first on an accounting basis only. Although Denmark, Great Britain, and Sweden chose not to participate for the time being, the other twelve EU states replaced their national currencies with euro bank-notes and coins on 1 January 2002. The euro has the potential to rival the dollar as an international reserve currency. The United States remains sensitive to any developments toward a CFSP that might call NATO's preeminence into question, but the EU for some time will not have any capacity to conduct significant military operations outside of that alliance and also has signaled its continued desire to work within it. Moreover, the EU's attention during the first part of the twenty-first century will be devoted to its expansion into eastern Europe. In 1998 it began negotiations with six new candidates for admission (the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia), with enlargement from this group not expected before the end of 2002. On 15 January 2000 it also initiated talks with six further applicants (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, and Slovakia). Ten of the twelve candidates should join around mid-decade, with Bulgarian and Romanian accession by 2009.
Bibliography
Lundestad, Geir. "Empire" by Integration: The United States and European Integration, 1945–1997. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. The standard work; also provocative with its thesis of an American "empire."
Nugent, Neill. The Government and Politics of the European Union. 4th ed. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999. The standard work on how the EU functions and its policies.
Pond, Elizabeth. The Rebirth of Europe. Rev. ed. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1999. An excellent overview of European integration and its prospects and problems since 1989.
Stirk, Peter M. R. A History of European Integration since 1914. London: Continuum, 1996.
Urwin, Derek W. The Community of Europe: A History of European Integration since 1945. 2d ed. London: Longman, 1995. Both Stirk and Urwin are good general histories, with the former paying more attention to both the Atlantic framework and the Cold War as influences on the integration process.
—Thomas Maulucci
| Columbia Encyclopedia: European Union |
European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community (EC), an economic and political confederation of European nations, and other organizations (with the same member nations) that are responsible for a common foreign and security policy and for cooperation on justice and home affairs. Twenty-seven countries-Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany (originally West Germany), Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden-are full members of the organizations of the EU.
Organizational Structure
The EC, which is the core of the EU, originally referred to the group of Western European nations that belonged to each of three treaty organizations-the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the European Economic Community (EEC), and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). In 1967 these organizations were consolidated under a comprehensive governing body composed of representatives from the member nations and divided into four main branches-the European Commission (formerly the Commission of the European Communities), the Council of the European Union (formerly the Council of Ministers of the European Communities), the European Parliament, and the European Court of Justice.
Although the EU has no single seat of government, many of its most important offices are in Brussels, Belgium. The European Commission, which has executive and some legislative functions, is headquartered there, as is the Council of the European Union; it is also where the various committees of the European Parliament generally meet to prepare for the monthly sessions in Strasbourg, France. In addition to the four main branches of the EU's governing body, there are the Court of Auditors, which oversees EU expenditures; the Economic and Social Committee, a consultative body representing the interests of labor, employers, farmers, consumers, and other groups; and the European Council, a consultative but highly influential body composed primarily of the president of the Commission and the heads of government of the EU nations and their foreign ministers.
Evolution
The history of the EU began shortly after World War II, when there developed in Europe a strong revulsion against national rivalries and parochial loyalties. While postwar recovery was stimulated by the Marshall Plan, the idea of a united Europe was held up as the basis for European strength and security and the best way of preventing another European war. In 1950 Robert Schuman, France's foreign minister, proposed that the coal and steel industries of France and West Germany be coordinated under a single supranational authority. France and West Germany were soon joined by four other countries-Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Italy-in forming (1952) the ECSC. The EEC (until the late 1980s it was known informally as the Common Market) and Euratom were established by the Treaty of Rome in 1958. The EEC, working on a large scale to promote the convergence of national economies into a single European economy, soon emerged as the most significant of the three treaty organizations.
The Brussels Treaty (1965) provided for the merger of the organizations into what came to be known as the EC and later the EU. Under Charles de Gaulle, France vetoed (1963) Britain's initial application for membership in the Common Market, five years after vetoing a British proposal that the Common Market be expanded into a transatlantic free-trade area. In the interim, Britain had engineered the formation (1959) of the European Free Trade Association. In 1973 the EC expanded, as Great Britain, Ireland, and Denmark joined. Greece joined in 1981, and Spain and Portugal in 1986. With German reunification in 1990, the former East Germany also was absorbed into the Community.
The Single European Act (1987) amended the EC's treaties so as to strengthen the organization's ability to create a single internal market. The Treaty of European Union, signed in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in 1992 and ratified in 1993, provided for a central banking system, a common currency to replace the national currencies (the euro, see European Monetary System), a legal definition of the EU, and a framework for expanding the EU's political role, particularly in the area of foreign and security policy. The member countries completed their move toward a single market in 1993 and agreed to participate in a larger common market, the European Economic Area (est. 1994), with most of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) nations. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden, all former EFTA members, joined the EU, but Norway did not, having rejected membership for the second time in 1994.
A crisis within the EU was precipitated in 1996 when sales of British beef were banned because of "mad cow disease" (see prion). Britain retaliated by vowing to paralyze EU business until the ban was lifted, but that crisis eased when a British plan for eradicating the disease was approved. The ban was lifted in 1999, but French refusal to permit the sale of British beef resulted in new strains within the EU. In 1998, as a prelude to their 1999 adoption of the euro, 11 EU nations established the European Central Bank. The euro was introduced into circulation in 2002 by 12 EU nations; additional EU nations have since adopted it.
The EU was rocked by charges of corruption and mismanagement in its executive body, the European Commission (EC), in 1999. In response the EC's executive commission including its president, Jacques Santer, resigned, and a new group of commissioners headed by Romano Prodi was soon installed. In actions taken later that year the EU agreed to absorb the functions of the Western European Union, a comparatively dormant European defense alliance, thus moving toward making the EU a military power with defensive and peacekeeping capabilities.
The installation in Feb., 2000, of a conservative Austrian government that included the right-wing Freedom party, whose leaders had made xenophobic, racist, and anti-Semitic pronouncements, led the other EU members to impose a number of sanctions on Austria that limited high-level contacts with the Austrian government. Enthusiasm for the sanctions soon waned, however, among smaller EU nations, and the issue threatened to divide the EU. A face-saving fact-finding commission recommended ending the sanctions, stating that the Austrian government had worked to protect human rights, and the sanctions were ended in September.
In 2003 the EU and ten non-EU European nations (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta) signed treaties that resulted in the largest expansion of the EU the following year, increasing the its population by 20% and its land area by 23%. Most of the newer members are significantly poorer than the largely W European older members. The old and new member nations at first failed to agree on a constitution for the organization; the main stumbling block concerned voting, with Spain and Poland reluctant to give up a weighted system of voting scheduled for 2006 that would give them a disproportionate influence in the EU relative to their populations. In Oct., 2004, however, EU nations signed a constitution with a provision requiring a supermajority of nations to pass legislation. The constitution, which needed to be ratified by all members to come into effect, was rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005, leading EU leaders to pause in their push for its ratification.
Meanwhile, in 2003 the EU embarked, in minor ways, on its first official military missions when EU peacekeeping forces replaced the NATO force in Macedonia and were sent by the United Nations to Congo (Kinshasa); the following year the EU assumed responsibility for overseeing the peacekeepers in Bosnia. EU members also took steps toward developing a common defense strategy independent of NATO, and agreed in 2004 to admit Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. José Manuel Barroso succeeded Prodi as president of the European Commission late in 2004. Accession talks with Turkey were partially suspended in Dec., 2006, over the issue of Turkish relations with Cyprus because Turkey was unwilling to open its ports to Cypriot trade unless the EU eased its trade restrictions on North Cyprus.
The EU opted for incremental reforms over a new constitution in 2007, when member nations signed the Lisbon Treaty. The treaty, slated to come into force in 2009 after ratification by all EU nations, would reorganize the European Council, establish a single EU foreign policy official, and reform the EU's system of voting, among other changes. (The reforms would be phased in through 2017.) In June, 2008, however, Irish voters-the only national electorate given the opportunity to ratify the treaty-rejected it in a referendum, a potentially fatal setback. A year later, however, EU nations agreed on a number of guarantees to the Irish Republic that were designed to lead to a new Irish referendum on the treaty. Weaknesses in an EU system in which economic and monetary integration was not backed up by political unity were revealed by the economic crisis of 2008, when measures such as bank-deposit guarantees adopted by some euro nations forced most EU nations to adopt similar measures in order to avoid bank runs and eurozone nations were unable to agree on a common approach to the crisis and resulting recession. At the same time, however, many non-euro European nations, whether members of the EU or not, found their financial systems stressed to a far greater degree by the crisis than most euro nations did.
Bibliography
See W. Diebold, The Schuman Plan (1959); R. L. Heilbroner, Forging a United Europe (Public Affairs Pamphlet, 1961); B. Morris and K. Boehm, ed., The European Community (1986); H. Wallace and A. Ridley, Europe: The Challenge of Diversity (1986); M. Burgess, Federalism and European Union (1989); and D. Dinan, A Historical Dictionary of the European Community (1993).
| Intelligence Encyclopedia: European Union |
The European Union (EU) is a long-standing political and economic federation of autonomous European nations. With the consent of member states, the EU legislates a variety of issues by treaty, including trade, customs, travel, currency, and defense. Members choose to participate in various EU institutions, delegating sovereignty in order to achieve common goals.
The organization embraces democracy and the rule of law, requiring member states to possess some form of representative government, elected by universal adult suffrage of the adult citizenry. The mission of the EU is to promote economic growth in Europe, create a strong international market, lobby for European interests in the international community, raise standards of living, and promote peace.
History. European integration, the process that eventually yielded the EU, began on May 9, 1950, when France proposed to create a European trade organization. Two years later, France and Germany established the European Coal and Steel Community. Both nations sought to solve disputes over coal mining territories and industry competition unresolved since the end of the Second World War. Belgium later joined France and Germany, uniting most of Western Europe's continental coal and steel industry.
Continued success of the European Coal and Steel Community prompted its president to lobby European governments for the establishment of a large-scale economic and trade union. In 1957, six nations (France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy) signed the Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community (EEC). The EEC standardized some tariffs, opened borders to free trade, promoted industry cooperation, regulated industry standards, and synchronized export practices.
In 1967, the member nations brought the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) into the fold of the EEC. The new unified organization was officially named the European Community (EC), though many continued to use to older designation, EEC, to refer to the new union.
Several nations in Europe chose not to join the original EEC, the most prominent of which was Great Britain. In January 1960, Britain formed a more loosely regulated economic union to rival the EC. The European Free Trade Association (EFTA), known colloquially as the "Seven," included Britain, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland. A year later, Britain applied for membership in the EC, but France rejected their proposal to join the organization. The French government subsequently vetoed Britain's second application for membership in 1964.
Britain, along with Ireland, Denmark, and Norway, became members of the EC in 1973. In a series of accessions, six more nations joined the EC before 1995. The organization adopted a more ambitious mandate in the 1990s, establishing government and judiciary organizations in an attempt to closely unite European interests. Adoption of the new mandate by member states established the European Union.
Organization. Today's EU mission encompasses more than economic goals. The principal objectives of the EU are to establish European citizenship, ensure civil rights of European citizens, promote social progress, protect European security, and ensure justice. To these ends, the European Union maintains its own government and supporting agencies. These institutions are granted sovereignty by the member states to legislate European affairs and create international law. Final adoption of EU policy, however, is left to the individual member states.
Five primary institutions comprise the government of the EU. Its overall structure embraces the three-branch democratic model of government, with executive, legislative, and judicial bodies. The European Commission is the primary institution of the executive branch. Members are elected or appointed by the European Parliament. The Council of the Union is composed of representatives from the governments of the member states. The Council governs the EU as a collective, requiring majority support to set or endorse policy.
The European Parliament, the legislative body, is elected by the people of the member states. Committees within the European Parliament address specific concerns, such as health care, preservation of the environment, and trade regulation. The Court of Auditors, the committee responsible for overseeing and managing the EU budget, remains separate from every branch of the EU government, but works closely with the Parliament to appropriately allocate funds and resources.
The EU judiciary is the Court of Justice. The jurisdiction of the European court is somewhat dubious, and member states recognize its authority to varying degrees. The court is similar in structure and function to those of the United Nations, but is permitted to pursue only cases that affect member states.
A myriad of committees and support institutions comprise the rest of the EU government. The EU maintains its own central finance system, including the European Central Bank and the European Investment Bank. These contain funds used by the EU or granted to individual member states for various joint projects. In 1999, nine nations adopted a standard European currency, the Euro.
Membership. Fifteen member states currently comprise the European Union: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. These member nations participate in the EU to varying degrees. For example, Britain participates in EU economic and trade associations, but uses its national currency, the pound, instead of the euro.
In 1998, the EU began negotiations with several eastern and southern European nations regarding EU expansion. Still recovering from decades of Soviet Communist domination, many of these nations possess fledgling free market economies. Introduction of former Eastern Block nations into the EU holds the potential for economic growth and expanded investment opportunities for European industry. However, expansion also poses liabilities to more economically robust EU nations.
The EU granted admission to the following candidate nations in 2002: Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia. These nations officially join the EU on May 1, 2004, assuming that they ratify membership in a national, public referendum. Bulgaria and Romania are scheduled join the EU in 2007. Some negotiations on expansion proved contentious. The EU denied Turkey's application to join the organization, despite the nation's numerous economic and trade associations with Europe. The EU will review Turkey's application again in 2004, if the nation furnishes evidence that it has met EU demands to improve human rights and maintain a stable democratic government. The nation of Cyprus, divided between Grecian southern Cyprus and nationalist Turkish Cypriots, failed to reunify before the EU accepted the national proposal to join the EU. Therefore, only the independent half of the nation will join the EU in 2004.
Some nations in Western Europe have chosen to remain outside of the European Union. Switzerland, and EFTA members, did not join the union on the grounds that membership in the EU threatened its national policy of declared neutrality. Norway also chose to exclude itself from EU membership.
Common defense and security: the future of the EU. A series of treaties in the 1980s and 1990s expanded the political, defense, and military role of the European Union. Formerly an instrument of economic and social policy, the EU adopted the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) in response to global instability and the rise or terrorism. The creation of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) followed, outlining the EU's international responsibilities to defend European territory and interests while cooperating with organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the United Nations.
Defense and security strategy remains one of the most contentious aspects of European Union policy. Some member states prefer to rely on their connections to NATO, or their own defenses, for protection. Others are wary of creating an EU military force under international command.
The EU established several crisis management tasks, known as the Petersberg Tasks, a foreign policy priority. For the purpose of humanitarian aid and rescue, peacekeeping, and crisis management, the EU created a military task force of 60,000 reserve troops. Member states can choose to contribute and deploy national military troops to EU operations on a case-by-case basis.
The EDSP launched its first operation, a police mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in January 2003. The first EU military operation commenced in Macedonia two months later.
With the aid of ESDP liaisons in 2002, the EU candidate nations signed a declaration warning Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein that military action was justified if United Nations weapons inspections were not permitted to freely proceed. The statement angered several EU members, causing a rift in EU foreign policy. Although the EU did not formally support the subsequent United States led action in Iraq, several member and candidate nations supported the Coalition military action. Some of the most influential EU nations, such as France and Germany, voiced strong opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq.
Further Reading
Electronic
European Union. <http://www.europa.eu.int> (May 9, 2003).
| Currency: European Union |
| Statistics: European Union |
Introduction
| Preliminary statement: | The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a regional economic agreement among six neighboring states in 1951 to today's supranational organization of 27 countries across the European continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the annals of history. Dynastic unions for territorial consolidation were long the norm in Europe. On a few occasions even country-level unions were arranged - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were examples - but for such a large number of nation-states to cede some of their sovereignty to an overarching entity is truly unique. Although the EU is not a federation in the strict sense, it is far more than a free-trade association such as ASEAN, NAFTA, or Mercosur, and it has many of the attributes associated with independent nations: its own flag, anthem, founding date, and currency, as well as an incipient common foreign and security policy in its dealings with other nations. In the future, many of these nation-like characteristics are likely to be expanded. Thus, inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has been deemed appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World Factbook. However, because of the EU's special status, this description is placed after the regular country entries. |
| Background: | Following the two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century, a number of European leaders in the late 1940s became convinced that the only way to establish a lasting peace was to unite the two chief belligerent nations - France and Germany - both economically and politically. In 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert SCHUMAN proposed an eventual union of all Europe, the first step of which would be the integration of the coal and steel industries of Western Europe. The following year the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was set up when six members, Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Paris. The ECSC was so successful that within a few years the decision was made to integrate other parts of the countries' economies. In 1957, the Treaties of Rome created the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the six member states undertook to eliminate trade barriers among themselves by forming a common market. In 1967, the institutions of all three communities were formally merged into the European Community (EC), creating a single Commission, a single Council of Ministers, and the European Parliament. Members of the European Parliament were initially selected by national parliaments, but in 1979 the first direct elections were undertaken and they have been held every five years since. In 1973, the first enlargement of the EC took place with the addition of Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The 1980s saw further membership expansion with Greece joining in 1981 and Spain and Portugal in 1986. The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht laid the basis for further forms of cooperation in foreign and defense policy, in judicial and internal affairs, and in the creation of an economic and monetary union - including a common currency. This further integration created the European Union (EU). In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU, raising the membership total to 15. A new currency, the euro, was launched in world money markets on 1 January 1999; it became the unit of exchange for all of the EU states except the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Denmark. In 2002, citizens of the 12 euro-area countries began using the euro banknotes and coins. Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - and in 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined, bringing the current membership to 27. In order to ensure that the EU can continue to function efficiently with an expanded membership, the Treaty of Nice (in force as of 1 February 2003) set forth rules streamlining the size and procedures of EU institutions. An effort to establish an EU constitution, begun in October 2004, failed to attain unanimous ratification. A new effort, undertaken in June 2007, calls for the creation of an Intergovernmental Conference to form a political agreement, known as the Reform Treaty, which is to serve as a constitution. Unlike the constitution, however, the Reform Treaty would amend existing treaties rather than replace them. In June 2008, the Irish rejected the Reform Treaty in a referendum. |
Geography
| Location: | Europe between the North Atlantic Ocean in the west and Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine to the east |
| Map references: | Europe |
| Area: | total: 4,324,782 sq km |
| Area - comparative: | less than one-half the size of the US |
| Land boundaries: | total: 12,440.8 km border countries: Albania 282 km, Andorra 120.3 km, Belarus 1,050 km, Croatia 999 km, Holy See 3.2 km, Liechtenstein 34.9 km, Macedonia 394 km, Moldova 450 km, Monaco 4.4 km, Norway 2,348 km, Russia 2,257 km, San Marino 39 km, Serbia 945 km, Switzerland 1,811 km, Turkey 446 km, Ukraine 1,257 km note: data for European Continent only |
| Coastline: | 65,992.9 km |
| Maritime claims: | NA |
| Climate: | cold temperate; potentially subarctic in the north to temperate; mild wet winters; hot dry summers in the south |
| Terrain: | fairly flat along the Baltic and Atlantic coast; mountainous in the central and southern areas |
| Elevation extremes: | lowest point: Lammefjord, Denmark -7 m; Zuidplaspolder, Netherlands -7 m highest point: Mont Blanc 4,807 m; note - situated on the border between France and Italy |
| Natural resources: | iron ore, natural gas, petroleum, coal, copper, lead, zinc, bauxite, uranium, potash, salt, hydropower, arable land, timber, fish |
| Land use: | arable land: NA permanent crops: NA other: NA |
| Irrigated land: | 168,050 sq km (2003 est.) |
| Natural hazards: | flooding along coasts; avalanches in mountainous area; earthquakes in the south; volcanic eruptions in Italy; periodic droughts in Spain; ice floes in the Baltic |
| Environment - current issues: | NA |
| Environment - international agreements: | party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94 signed but not ratified: Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds |
People
| Population: | 491,582,852 (July 2009 est.) |
| Age structure: | 0-14 years: 15.44% (male 38,975,981/female 36,925,704) 15-64 years: 67.22% (male 166,277,341/female 164,183,829) 65 years and over: 17.34% (male 35,372,684/female 49,847,313) (2009 est.) |
| Median age: | note - see individual country entries of member states (2009 est.) |
| Population growth rate: | 0.108% (2009 est.) |
| Birth rate: | 9.9 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
| Death rate: | 10.28 deaths/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
| Net migration rate: | 1.46 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
| Sex ratio: | at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.68 male(s)/female total population: 0.92 male(s)/female (2009 est.) |
| Infant mortality rate: | total: 5.72 deaths/1,000 live births male: 6.38 deaths/1,000 live births female: 5.02 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) |
| Life expectancy at birth: | total population: 78.67 years male: 75.54 years female: 81.97 years (2009 est.) |
| Total fertility rate: | 1.51 children born/woman (2009 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: | note - see individual country entries of member states |
| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: | note - see individual country entries of member states |
| HIV/AIDS - deaths: | note - see individual country entries of member states |
| Religions: | Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish |
| Languages: | Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish note: only official languages are listed; German, the major language of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, is the most widely spoken mother tongue - over 19% of the EU population; English is the most widely spoken language - about 49% of the EU population is conversant with it (2007) |
Government
| Union name: | conventional long form: European Union abbreviation: EU |
| Political structure: | a hybrid intergovernmental and supranational organization |
| Capital: | name: Brussels (Belgium), Strasbourg (France), Luxembourg geographic coordinates: 50 50 N, 4 20 E time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October note: the Council of the European Union meets in Brussels, Belgium; the European Parliament meets in Brussels and Strasbourg, France; the Court of Justice of the European Communities meets in Luxembourg |
| Member states: | 27 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK; note - Canary Islands (Spain), Azores and Madeira (Portugal), French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion (France) are sometimes listed separately even though they are legally a part of Spain, Portugal, and France; candidate countries: Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey |
| Independence: | 7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed establishing the EU); 1 November 1993 (Maastricht Treaty entered into force) |
| National holiday: | Europe Day 9 May (1950); note - a Union-wide holiday, the day that Robert SCHUMAN proposed the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community to achieve an organized Europe |
| Constitution: | none note: based on a series of treaties: the Treaty of Paris, which set up the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951; the Treaties of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957; the Single European Act in 1986; the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht) in 1992; the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997; and the Treaty of Nice in 2003; note - a new draft Constitutional Treaty, signed on 29 October 2004 in Rome, gave member states two years for ratification either by parliamentary vote or national referendum before it was scheduled to take effect on 1 November 2006; defeat in French and Dutch referenda in May-June 2005 dealt a severe setback to the ratification process; in June 2007, the European Council agreed on a clear and concise mandate for an Intergovernmental Conference to form a political agreement and put it into legal form; this agreement, known as the Reform Treaty, would have served as a constitution and was presented to the European Council in October 2007 for individual country ratification; it was rejected by Irish voters in June 2008, again stalling the ratification process |
| Legal system: | comparable to the legal systems of member states; first supranational law system |
| Suffrage: | 18 years of age; universal |
| Executive branch: | chief of union: President of the European Commission Jose Manuel DURAO BARROSO (since 22 November 2004) cabinet: European Commission (composed of 27 members, one from each member country; each commissioner responsible for one or more policy areas) elections: the president of the European Commission is designated by member governments and is confirmed by the European Parliament; working from member state recommendations, the Commission president then assembles a "college" of Commission members; the European Parliament confirms the entire Commission for a five-year term; the last confirmation process was held 18 November 2004 (next to be held in 2009) election results: European Parliament approved the European Commission by a vote of 449 to 149 with 82 abstentions note: the European Council brings together heads of state and government and the president of the European Commission and meets at least four times a year; its aim is to provide the impetus for the major political issues relating to European integration and to issue general policy guidelines |
| Legislative branch: | two legislative bodies consisting of the Council of the European Union (27 member-state ministers having 345 votes; the number of votes is roughly proportional to member-states' population; note - the Council is the main decision-making body of the EU) and the European Parliament (785 seats, as of 1 January 2007; seats allocated among member states in proportion to population; members elected by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term) elections: last held 10-13 June 2004 (next to be held in June 2009) election results: percent of vote - NA; seats by party - EPP-ED 268, PES 202, ALDE 88, Greens/EFA 42, EUL/NGL 41, IND/DEM 36, UEN 27, independents 28; note - seats by party as of 1 December 2007 - EPP-ED 275, PES 217, ALDE 104, UEN 44, Greens/EFA 42, EUL/NGL 41, IND/DEM 24, independents 34, unaccounted for 4 |
| Judicial branch: | Court of Justice of the European Communities (ensures that the treaties are interpreted and applied uniformly throughout the EU; resolve constitutional issues among the EU institutions) - 27 justices (one from each member state) appointed for a six-year term; note - for the sake of efficiency, the court can sit with 13 justices known as the "Grand Chamber"; Court of First Instance - 27 justices appointed for a six-year term |
| Political parties and leaders: | Confederal Group of the European United Left-Nordic Green Left or EUL/NGL [Francis WURTZ]; European People's Party-European Democrats or EPP-ED [Joseph DAUL]; Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or ALDE [Graham R. WATSON]; Group of Greens/European Free Alliance or Greens/EFA [Monica FRASSONI and Daniel Marc COHN-BENDIT]; Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty Group or ITS [Bruno GOLLNISCH]; Independence/Democracy Group or IND/DEM [Jens-Peter BONDE and Nigel FARAGE]; Socialist Group in the European Parliament or PES [Martin SCHULZ]; Union for Europe of the Nations Group or UEN [Brian CROWLEY and Cristiana MUSCARDINI] |
| International organization participation: | European Union: ARF (dialogue member), ASEAN (dialogue member), IDA, OAS (observer), PIF (partner), SAARC (observer), UN (observer) European Community: Australian Group, CBSS, CERN, FAO, EBRD, G-10, LAIA, NSG (observer), OECD, UNRWA, WCO, WTO, ZC (observer) European Central Bank: BIS European Investment Bank: EBRD, WADB (nonregional member) |
| Diplomatic representation in the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador John BRUTON chancery: 2300 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037 telephone: [1] (202) 862-9500 FAX: [1] (202) 429-1766 |
| Diplomatic representation from the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Christopher MURRAY embassy: 13 Zinnerstraat/Rue Zinner, B-1000 Brussels mailing address: same as above telephone: [32] (2) 508-2111 FAX: [32] (2) 508-2063 |
| Flag description: | blue field with 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged in a circle in the center, representing the union of the peoples of Europe; the number of stars is fixed |
Economy
| Economy - overview: | Internally, the EU is attempting to lower trade barriers, adopt a common currency, and move toward convergence of living standards. Internationally, the EU aims to bolster Europe's trade position and its political and economic power. Because of the great differences in per capita income among member states (from $7,000 to $69,000) and historic national animosities, the EU faces difficulties in devising and enforcing common policies. For example, since 2003 Germany and France have flouted the member states' treaty obligation to prevent their national budgets from running more than a 3% deficit. In 2004 and 2007, the EU admitted 10 and two countries, respectively, that are, in general, less advanced technologically and economically than the other 15. Eleven established EU member states introduced the euro as their common currency on 1 January 1999 (Greece did so two years later), but the UK, Sweden, and Denmark chose not to participate. Of the 12 most recent member states, only Slovenia (1 January 2007) and Cyprus and Malta (1 January 2008) have adopted the euro; the remaining nine are legally required to adopt the currency upon meeting EU's fiscal and monetary convergence criteria. |
| GDP (purchasing power parity): | $14.82 trillion (2008 est.) $14.66 trillion (2007) $14.34 trillion (2006) note: data are in 2008 US dollars |
| GDP (official exchange rate): | $18.85 trillion (2008 est.) |
| GDP - real growth rate: | 1% (2008 est.) 3% (2007 est.) 3.3% (2006 est.) |
| GDP - per capita (PPP): | $33,400 (2008 est.) $33,400 (2007 est.) $32,600 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars |
| GDP - composition by sector: | agriculture: 2% industry: 26.8% services: 71.1% (2008 est.) |
| Labor force: | 224.8 million (2008 est.) |
| Labor force - by occupation: | agriculture: 5.6% industry: 27.7% services: 66.7% note: the remainder is in miscellaneous public and private sector industries and services (2007 est.) |
| Unemployment rate: | 7.5% (2008 est.) |
| Population below poverty line: | note - see individual country entries of member states |
| Household income or consumption by percentage share: | lowest 10%: 2.8% highest 10%: 25.2% (2001 est.) |
| Distribution of family income - Gini index: | 31 (2005 est.) |
| Investment (gross fixed): | 21% of GDP (2008 est.) |
| Fiscal year: | NA |
| Inflation rate (consumer prices): | 3% (2008 est.) |
| Central bank discount rate: | 4% note: this is the European Central Bank's rate on the marginal lending facility, which offers overnight credit to banks from the eurosystem (31 December 2008) |
| Commercial bank prime lending rate: | 8.03% (31 December 2007) |
| Stock of money: | $5.679 trillion note: this is the quantity of money, M1, for the euro area, converted into US dollars at the exchange rate for the date indicated; it excludes the stock of money carried by non-eurozone members of the European Union (31 December 2008) |
| Stock of quasi money: | $11.38 trillion note: this is the quantity of quasi money, M2, for the euro area, converted into US dollars at the exchange rate for the date indicated; it excludes the stock of quasi money carried by non-eurozone members of the European Union (31 December 2008) |
| Stock of domestic credit: | $20.94 trillion note: this figure refers to the euro area only; it excludes credit data for members of the EU outside the eurozone (31 December 2007) |
| Market value of publicly traded shares: | $14.37 trillion (2008 est.) |
| Agriculture - products: | wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes; dairy products, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry; fish |
| Industries: | among the world's largest and most technologically advanced, the European Union industrial base includes: ferrous and non-ferrous metal production and processing, metal products, petroleum, coal, cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, rail transportation equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, construction equipment, industrial equipment, shipbuilding, electrical power equipment, machine tools and automated manufacturing systems, electronics and telecommunications equipment, fishing, food and beverage processing, furniture, paper, textiles, tourism |
| Industrial production growth rate: | -0.4% (2008 est.) |
| Electricity - production: | 3.103 trillion kWh (2007 est.) |
| Electricity - consumption: | 2.926 trillion kWh (2007 est.) |
| Electricity - exports: | NA kWh |
| Electricity - imports: | NA kWh |
| Oil - production: | 2.676 million bbl/day (2007 est.) |
| Oil - consumption: | 14.38 million bbl/day (2007 est.) |
| Oil - exports: | 2.196 million bbl/day (2007 est.) |
| Oil - imports: | 8.613 million bbl/day (2007 est.) |
| Oil - proved reserves: | 6.146 billion bbl (1 January 2008) |
| Natural gas - production: | 197.8 billion cu m (2007 est.) |
| Natural gas - consumption: | 497.3 billion cu m (2007 est.) |
| Natural gas - exports: | NA cu m |
| Natural gas - imports: | NA cu m |
| Natural gas - proved reserves: | 2.476 trillion cu m (1 January 2008 est.) |
| Current account balance: | $51.4 billion (2008 est.) |
| Exports: | $1.952 trillion; note - external exports, excluding intra-EU trade (2007) |
| Exports - commodities: | machinery, motor vehicles, aircraft, plastics, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals, fuels, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, wood pulp and paper products, textiles, meat, dairy products, fish, alcoholic beverages. |
| Imports: | $1.69 trillion f.o.b.; note - external imports, excluding intra-EU trade (2007) |
| Imports - commodities: | machinery, vehicles, aircraft, plastics, crude oil, chemicals, textiles, metals, foodstuffs, clothing |
| Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: | $NA |
| Currency (code): | euro, British pound, Bulgarian lev, Czech koruna, Danish krone, Estonian kroon, Hungarian forint, Latvian lat, Lithuanian litas, Polish zloty, Romanian leu, Slovak koruna, Swedish krona |
| Currency code: | EUR |
| Exchange rates: | euros per US dollar - 0.6827 (2008 est.), 0.7345 (2007), 0.7964 (2006), 0.8041 (2005), 0.8054 (2004) |
Communications
| Telephones - main lines in use: | 238 million (2005) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular: | 466 million (2005) |
| Telephone system: | note - see individual country entries of member states |
| Radio broadcast stations: | AM 930, FM 13,655, shortwave 71 (1998); note - sum of individual country radio broadcast stations; there is also a European-wide station (Euroradio) |
| Television broadcast stations: | 2,700 (1995); note - sum of individual country television broadcast stations excluding repeaters; there is also a European-wide station (Eurovision) |
| Internet country code: | .eu; note - see country entries of member states for individual country codes |
| Internet hosts: | 31,693 (2008); note - this sum reflects the number of internet hosts assigned the .eu internet country code |
| Internet users: | 247 million (2006) |
Transportation
| Airports: | 3,127 3,393 (2008) |
| Airports - with paved runways: | total: 1,842 over 3,047 m: 107 2,438 to 3,047 m: 316 1,524 to 2,437 m: 518 914 to 1,523 m: 424 under 914 m: 277 (2008) |
| Airports - with unpaved runways: | total: 1,285 over 3,047 m: 3 2,438 to 3,047 m: 3 1,524 to 2,437 m: 27 914 to 1,523 m: 243 under 914 m: 1,009 (2008) |
| Heliports: | 100 (2007) |
| Railways: | total: 236,436 km broad gauge: 28,250 km standard gauge: 200,401 km narrow gauge: 7,771 km other: 23 km (2007) |
| Roadways: | total: 5,454,446 km (2008) |
| Waterways: | 52,332 km (2006) |
| Ports and terminals: | Antwerp (Belgium), Barcelona (Spain), Braila (Romania), Bremen (Germany), Burgas (Bulgaria), Constanta (Romania), Copenhagen (Denmark), Galati (Romania), Gdansk (Poland), Hamburg (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain), Le Havre (France), Lisbon (Portugal), London (UK), Marseille (France), Naples (Italy), Peiraiefs or Piraeus (Greece), Riga (Latvia), Rotterdam (Netherlands), Stockholm (Sweden), Talinn (Estonia), Tulcea (Romania), Varna (Bulgaria) |
Military
| Military - note: | the five-nation Eurocorps - created in 1992 by France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Luxembourg - has deployed troops and police on peacekeeping missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and assumed command of the ISAF in Afghanistan in August 2004; Eurocorps directly commands the 5,000-man Franco-German Brigade, the Multinational Command Support Brigade, and EUFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina; in November 2004, the EU Council of Ministers formally committed to creating 13 1,500-man battle groups by the end of 2007, to respond to international crises on a rotating basis; 22 of the EU's 27 nations have agreed to supply troops; France, Italy, and the UK formed the first of three battle groups in 2005; Norway, Sweden, Estonia, and Finland established the Nordic Battle Group effective 1 January 2008; nine other groups are to be formed; a rapid-reaction naval EU Maritime Task Group was stood up in March 2007 (2007) |
Transnational Issues
| Disputes - international: | as a political union, the EU has no border disputes with neighboring countries, but Estonia has no land boundary agreements with Russia, Slovenia disputes its land and maritime boundaries with Croatia, and Spain has territorial and maritime disputes with Morocco and with the UK over Gibraltar; the EU has set up a Schengen area - consisting of 22 EU member states that have signed the convention implementing the Schengen agreements or "acquis" (1985 and 1990) on the free movement of persons and the harmonization of border controls in Europe; these agreements became incorporated into EU law with the implementation of the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1999; in addition, non-EU states Iceland and Norway (as part of the Nordic Union) have been included in the Schengen area since 1996 (full members in 2001), and Switzerland since 2008 bringing the total current membership to 25; the UK (since 2000) and Ireland (since 2002) take part in only some aspects of the Schengen area, especially with respect to police and criminal matters; nine of the 12 new member states that joined the EU since 2004 joined Schengen on 21 December 2007; of the three remaining EU states, Cyprus is expected to join by 2009, while Romania and Bulgaria continue to enhance their border security systems |
| Wine Lover's Companion: European Union (EU) |
A federation of European nations set up after the World War II. The original European Union members were Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. These countries were later joined by Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Other countries preparing to join the current group of fifteen are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Turkey. As it relates to the world of wine, the EU has established a standard set of regulations for wines entering EU countries from the United States; some member countries might also have additional individual requirements. Essentially, U.S. Exporters must follow the tax and trade bureau (previously batf) production regulations described in Circular 86-2-Certification and Analysis of U.S. Wine for Export to the European Economic Community (EEC). In addition to a host of required information that must appear on the labels, it's interesting to note what is not allowed. Items that cannot appear on labels include European appellation names, such as "Champagne" and "Beaujolais." In fact, the label can't show the use of generic or semigeneric wine class or type designations having European significance. For instance, "méthode champenoise" cannot be used and must be replaced by any of the following: "bottle-fermented by the traditional method," "traditional method," "classical method," or "classical traditional method." Labels are not allowed to have quality terms that have no tax and trade bureau (previously batf) standard, such as "reserve" and "select." Furthermore, a geographic indication of "American" is too broad-the label must indicate a smaller area, such as "California" or "New York," or one of the american viticultural areas. Interestingly, items required on U.S. Labels, like the government warning statement and the sulfites declaration, are not allowed either.
| Politics: European Union |
A political union, often called the EU, to which the member states of the EEC are evolving. Based on the Maastrict Treaty, it envisions the eventual establishment of common economic, foreign, security, and justice policies. The extent to which this goal will be achieved is still in doubt and occasions deep divisions in some member states, especially Great Britain. The members of the EU are Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Several nations, including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey, are seeking membership.
| Wikipedia: European Union |
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This article will need to be updated following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009. Remove this notice from the article when the adjustment is completed. |
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"EU" redirects here. For other uses, see EU (disambiguation).
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Evropská unie (Czech) Den Europæiske Union (Danish) Europese Unie (Dutch) Euroopa Liit (Estonian) Euroopan unioni (Finnish) Union européenne (French) Europäische Union (German) Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση (Greek) Európai Unió (Hungarian) An tAontas Eorpach (Irish) Unione Europea (Italian) Eiropas Savienība (Latvian) Europos Sąjunga (Lithuanian) L-Unjoni Ewropea (Maltese) Unia Europejska (Polish) União Europeia (Portuguese) Uniunea Europeană (Romanian) Európska únia (Slovak) Evropska unija (Slovene) Unión Europea (Spanish) Europeiska unionen (Swedish) |
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| Motto: United in diversity[1] | ||||||
| Anthem: Ode to Joy[1] (orchestral) |
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| Political centres | Brussels Luxembourg Strasbourg |
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| Official languages | ||||||
| Demonym | European[2] | |||||
| Members | ||||||
| Leaders | ||||||
| - | European Council | Fredrik Reinfeldt (EPP, Sweden) |
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| - | Parliament | Jerzy Buzek (EPP) | ||||
| - | EU Council | Sweden | ||||
| - | Commission | José Manuel Barroso (EPP) | ||||
| Formation | ||||||
| - | Paris Treaty | 18 April 1951 | ||||
| - | Rome Treaty | 25 March 1957 | ||||
| - | Maastricht Treaty | 7 February 1992 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 4,324,782 km2 (n/a) 1,669,807 sq mi |
||||
| - | Water (%) | 3.08 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2009 estimate | 499,794,855 (n/a) | ||||
| - | Density | 114/km2 (n/a) 289/sq mi |
||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2008 (IMF) estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $15.247 trillion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $30,513 | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2008 (IMF) estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $18.394 trillion (n/a) | ||||
| - | Per capita | $36,812 | ||||
| Gini (2009) | 30.7 (EU25)[3] (High) | |||||
| HDI (2007) | 0.937 (High) (n/a) | |||||
| Currency |
Euro (€)
(EUR) (de jure)---- National currencies British pound (£) (GBP)Bulgarian lev (лв) (BGN)Czech koruna] (Kč) (CZK)Danish krone] (kr) (DKK)Estonian kroon (kr) (EKK)Hungarian forint (Ft) (HUF)Latvian lats (Ls) (LVL)Lithuanian litas (Lt) (LTL)Polish złoty (zł) (PLN)Romanian leu (RON) (RON)Swedish krona (kr) (SEK) |
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| Time zone | (UTC+0 to +2) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | (UTC+1 to +3[4]) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .eu[5] | |||||
| Calling code | See list | |||||
The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states,[6] located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the European Economic Community.[7] With almost 500 million citizens, the EU combined generates an estimated 30% share (US$18.4 trillion in 2008) of the nominal gross world product and about 22% of the PPP gross world product.[8]
The EU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states, ensuring the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital.[9] It maintains common policies on trade,[10] agriculture, fisheries[11] and regional development.[12] Sixteen member states have adopted a common currency, the euro, constituting the Eurozone. The EU has developed a limited role in foreign policy, having representation at the WTO, G8, G20 and at the UN. It enacts legislation in justice and home affairs, including the abolition of passport controls by an agreement between 25 member states which form the Schengen Area.[13]
As an international organisation, the EU operates through a hybrid system of supranationalism and intergovernmentalism.[14][15][16] In certain areas, decisions are made through negotiation between member states, while in others, independent supranational institutions are responsible without a requirement for unanimity between member states. Important institutions and bodies of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the European Court of Justice, and the European Central Bank. The European Parliament is elected every five years by member states' citizens, to whom the citizenship of the European Union is guaranteed.
The EU originates from the European Coal and Steel Community formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome in 1957.[17][18][19] Since then, the EU has evolved through a process of enlargement, while new policy areas have been added to the remit of its institutions.
Contents |
History
Main article: History of the European Union
After the end of the Second World War, moves towards European integration were seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism which had devastated the continent.[20] One such attempt to unite Europeans was the European Coal and Steel Community which, while having the modest aim of centralised control of the previously national coal and steel industries of its member states, was declared to be "a first step in the federation of Europe".[21] The originators and supporters of the Community include Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul Henri Spaak and Alcide de Gasperi. The founding members of the Community were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.[22]
In 1957, these six countries signed the Treaties of Rome which extended the earlier cooperation within the European Coal and Steel Community and created the European Economic Community, (EEC) establishing a customs union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for cooperation in developing nuclear energy.[22] In 1967 the Merger Treaty created a single set of institutions for the three communities, which were collectively referred to as the European Communities (EC), although commonly just as the European Community.[23]
In 1973 the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.[24] Norway had negotiated to join at the same time but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum and so Norway remained outside. In 1979 the first direct, democratic elections to the European Parliament were held.[25]
Greece joined in 1981, and Spain and Portugal in 1986.[26] In 1985 the Schengen Agreement led the way toward the creation of open borders without passport controls between most member states and some non-member states.[27] In 1986 the European flag began to be used by the Community[28] and the Single European Act was signed.
In 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the former East Germany became part of the Community as part of a newly united Germany.[29] With enlargement toward Eastern and Central Europe on the agenda, the Copenhagen criteria for candidate members to join the European Union were agreed.
The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993,[7] and in 1995 Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the newly established EU. In 2002, euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states. Since then, the eurozone has increased to encompass sixteen countries, with Slovakia joining the eurozone on 1 January 2009. In 2004, the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary joined the Union.[30]
On 1 January 2007, Romania and Bulgaria became the EU's newest members and Slovenia adopted the euro.[30] In December of that year European leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty which was intended to replace the earlier, failed European Constitution, which never came into force after being rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, uncertainty clouded the prospects of the Lisbon Treaty's coming into force as result of its rejection by Irish voters in June 2008. On 17 July 2009, the Parliament of Iceland agreed to formally apply for EU membership and to begin talks for an agreement to be put to a referendum to the Icelandic voters. On 23 July 2009 the Icelandic foreign minister formally submitted Iceland's application for membership to his Swedish counterpart (Sweden held the EU Presidency on this date). On 2 October 2009 the Irish voters approved the Lisbon Treaty with 67% of the votes ratifying the treaty from a total voter turnout of 58% of the electorate. With the approval by Czech President Klaus on 3 November 2009, the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by all countries and will go into effect on 1 December 2009.
Treaties timeline
| 1948 Brussels |
1951/52 Paris |
1957/58 Rome |
1965/67 Brussels |
1986/87 SEA |
1992/93 Maastricht (founded EU) |
1997/99 Amsterdam |
2001/03 Nice |
2007/09 Lisbon |
|
| European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) | |||||||||
| European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) | European Union (EU) | ||||||||
| European Economic Community (EEC) | → P I L L A R S → |
European Community (EC) | |||||||
| ↑European Communities↑ | Justice & Home Affairs (JHA) | ||||||||
| Police & Judicial co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC) | |||||||||
| European Political Cooperation (EPC) | Common Foreign & Security Policy (CFSP) | ||||||||
| Western European Union (WEU) | |||||||||
Member states
Main article: Member State of the European Union
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The European Union is composed of 27 sovereign Member States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.[31]
Only six of these – France, (then-West) Germany, Italy, and the three already integrated Benelux countries; Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg – were members at the start, with membership having grown as countries willingly accede to the treaties and by doing so, pool sovereignty in exchange for representation in the institutions.[32] To join the EU a country must meet the Copenhagen criteria, defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council. These require a stable democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law; a functioning market economy capable of competition within the EU; and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law. Evaluation of a country's fulfilment of the criteria is the responsibility of the European Council.[33]
No member state has ever left the Union, although Greenland (a territory of Denmark) withdrew in 1985. Until the Treaty of Lisbon, which comes into force 1 December 2009, the EU did not have a framework specifying how a country could exit the Union.
There are three official candidate countries, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Iceland are officially recognised as potential candidates.[34] Kosovo is also listed as a potential candidate but the European Commission does not list it as an independent country because not all member states recognise it as an independent country separate from Serbia.[35]
Four Western European countries that have chosen not to join the EU have partly committed to the EU's economy and regulations: Iceland, which has now applied for membership, Liechtenstein and Norway, which are a part of the single market through the European Economic Area, and Switzerland, which has similar ties through bilateral treaties.[36][37] The relationships of the European microstates, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican include the use of the euro and other areas of co-operation.[38]
Geography
Main article: Geography of the European Union
The territory of the EU consists of the combined territories of its 27 member states with some exceptions, outlined below. The territory of the EU is not the same as that of Europe, as parts of the continent are outside the EU, such as Switzerland, Norway, European Russia, and Iceland. Some parts of member states are not part of the EU, despite forming part of the European continent (for example the Isle of Man and Channel Islands (two Crown Dependencies), and the Faroe Islands, a territory of Denmark). The island country of Cyprus, a member of the EU, is closer to Turkey than to mainland Europe and is often considered part of Asia.[39][40]
Several territories associated with member states that are outside geographic Europe are also not part of the EU (such as Greenland, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and all the non-European British overseas territories). Some overseas territories are part of the EU even though geographically not part of Europe, such as the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, Lampedusa, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion, Ceuta and Melilla. As well, although being technically part of the EU,[41] EU law is suspended in Northern Cyprus as it is under the de facto control of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, a self-proclaimed state that is recognised only by Turkey.
The EU's member states cover an area of 4,422,773 square kilometres (1,707,642 sq mi).[42] The EU is larger in area than all but six countries, and its highest peak is Mont Blanc in the Graian Alps, 4,807 metres (15,771 ft) above sea level. The landscape, climate, and economy of the EU are influenced by its coastline, which is 65,993 kilometres (41,006 mi) long. The EU has the world's second-longest coastline, after Canada. The combined member states share land borders with 19 non-member states for a total of 12,441 kilometres (7,730 mi), the fifth-longest border in the world.[15][43][44]
Including the overseas territories of member states, the EU experiences most types of climate from Arctic to tropical, rendering meteorological averages for the EU as a whole meaningless. The majority of the population lives in areas with a Mediterranean climate (Southern Europe), a temperate maritime climate (Western Europe), or a warm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (Eastern Europe).[45]
Governance
Main article: Politics of the European Union
The EU's work is divided into three areas of responsibility, called pillars. The original European Community policies form the first pillar, while the second consists of Common Foreign and Security Policy. The third pillar originally consisted of Justice and Home Affairs, however owing to changes introduced by the Amsterdam and Nice treaties, it has been reduced to Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (other matters were transferred to the Community). Broadly speaking, the second and third pillars can be described as the intergovernmental pillars because the supranational institutions of the Commission, Parliament and the Court of Justice play less of a role or none at all, while the lead is taken by the intergovernmental Council of Ministers and the European Council (which operate more by consensus than majority in these pillars). Most activities of the EU come under the first, Community pillar. This is mostly an economically oriented pillar and is where the supranational institutions have the most influence.[46]
Herman Van Rompuy was chosen on 19 November 2009 to become the first permanent President of the European Council, a position he will take up on 1 December 2009.
The activities of the EU are regulated by a number of institutions and bodies. They carry out the tasks and policies set out for them in the treaties. The EU receives its political leadership from the European Council, which is composed of one representative per member state—either its head of state or head of government—plus the President of the Commission. Each member state's representative is assisted by its Foreign Minister. The European Council uses its leadership role to sort out disputes which have arisen between member states and the institutions, and to resolve political crises and disagreements over controversial issues and policies. These procedures are all subject to the principle of subsidiarity which requires that action only be taken at EU level where an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states alone.
By virtue of a rotating presidency, every member state takes the helm of the EU for a period of six months during which that country's representatives chair meetings of the European Council and the Council of Ministers. The member state holding the presidency typically uses it to drive a particular policy agenda such as economic reform, reform of the EU itself, enlargement or furthering European integration. The European Council usually meet four times a year at European Summits.
The European Council should not be mistaken for the Council of Europe, an international organisation independent from the EU.
Institutions
Main article: Institutions of the European Union
The European Commission acts as the EU's executive arm and is responsible for initiating legislation and the day-to-day running of the EU. It is intended to act solely in the interest of the EU as a whole, as opposed to the Council which consists of leaders of member states who reflect national interests. The commission is also seen as the motor of European integration. It is currently composed of 27 commissioners for different areas of policy, one from each member state. The President of the Commission and all the other commissioners are nominated by the Council. Appointment of the Commission President, and also the Commission in its entirety, have to be confirmed by Parliament.[47]
The European Parliament forms one half of the EU's legislature. The 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are directly elected by EU citizens every five years. Although MEPs are elected on a national basis, they sit according to political groups rather than their nationality. Each country has a set number of seats. The Parliament and the Council of Ministers form and pass legislation jointly, using co-decision, in certain areas of policy. This procedure will extend to many new areas under the Treaty of Lisbon, and hence increase the power and relevance of the Parliament. The Parliament also has the power to reject or censure the Commission and the EU budget. The President of the European Parliament carries out the role of speaker in parliament and represents it externally. The president and vice presidents are elected by MEPs every two and a half years.[48]
The Council of the European Union (sometimes referred to as the Council of Ministers) forms the other half of the EU's legislature. It consists of a government minister from each member states and meets in different compositions depending on the policy area being addressed. Notwithstanding its different compositions, it is considered to be one single body.[49] In addition to its legislative functions, the Council also exercises executive functions in relations to the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The judicial branch of the EU consists of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First Instance. Together they interpret and apply the treaties and the law of the EU.[50] The Court of First Instance mainly deals with cases taken by individuals and companies directly before the EU's courts, and the ECJ primarily deals with cases taken by member states, the institutions and cases referred to it by the courts of member states.[51] Decisions from the Court of First Instance can be appealed to the Court of Justice but only on a point of law.[52]
Legal system
Further information: Law of the European Union, Treaties of the European Union, and European Union legislative procedure
The EU is based on a series of treaties. These first established the European Community and the EU, and then made amendments to those founding treaties.[53] These are power-giving treaties which set broad policy goals and establish institutions with the necessary legal powers to implement those goals. These legal powers include the ability to enact legislation[54] which can directly affect all member states and their inhabitants.[55] Under the principle of supremacy, national courts are required to enforce the treaties that their member states have ratified, and thus the laws enacted under them, even if doing so requires them to ignore conflicting national law, and (within limits) even constitutional provisions.[56]
The main legal acts of the EU come in three forms: regulations, directives, and decisions. Regulations become law in all member states the moment they come into force, without the requirement for any implementing measures,[57] and automatically override conflicting domestic provisions.[54] Directives require member states to achieve a certain result while leaving them discretion as to how to achieve the result. The details of how they are to be implemented are left to member states.[58] When the time limit for implementing directives passes, they may, under certain conditions, have direct effect in national law against member states. Decisions offer an alternative to the two above modes of legislation. They are legal acts which only apply to specified individuals, companies or a particular member state. They are most often used in Competition Law, or on rulings on State Aid, but are also frequently used for procedural or administrative matters within the institutions. Regulations, directives, and decisions are of equal legal value and apply without any formal hierarchy.
One of the complicating features of the EU's legal system is the multiplicity of legislative procedures used to enact legislation. The treaties micro-manage the EU's powers, indicating different ways of adopting legislation for different policy areas and for different areas within the same policy areas.[59] A common feature of the EU's legislative procedures, however, is that almost all legislation must be initiated by the Commission, rather than member states or European parliamentarians.[60] The two most common procedures are co-decision, under which the European Parliament can veto proposed legislation, and consultation, under which Parliament is only permitted to give an opinion which can be ignored by European leaders. In most cases legislation must be agreed by the council.[61]
National courts within the member states play a key role in the EU as enforcers of EU law, and a "spirit of cooperation" between EU and national courts is laid down in the Treaties. National courts can apply EU law in domestic cases, and if they require clarification on the interpretation or validity of any EU legislation related to the case it may make a reference for a preliminary ruling to the ECJ. The right to declare EU legislation invalid however is reserved to the EU courts.
Justice and home affairs
Further information: Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters and European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom & Security
Over the years, the EU has developed a wide competence in the area of justice and home affairs. To this end, agencies have been established that co-ordinate associated actions: Europol for co-operation of police forces,[62] Eurojust for co-operation between prosecutors,[63] and Frontex for co-operation between border control authorities.[64] The EU also operates the Schengen Information System[65] which provides a common database for police and immigration authorities.
Furthermore, the Union has legislated in areas such as extradition,[66] family law,[67] asylum law,[68] and criminal justice.[69] Prohibitions against sexual and nationality discrimination have a long standing in the treaties.[70] In more recent years, these have been supplemented by powers to legislate against discrimination based on race, religion, disability, age, and sexual orientation.[71] By virtue of these powers, the EU has enacted legislation on sexual discrimination in the work-place, age discrimination, and racial discrimination.[72]
Fundamental rights
At present the EU does not have a codified catalogue of fundamental rights against which its legal acts might be judged.[73] However, the European Court of Justice does give judgements on fundamental rights derived from the "constitutional traditions common to the member states,"[74] and may even invalidate EU legislation based on its failure to adhere to these fundamental rights.[73] While the EU may be said to have an unwritten fundamental rights code, there have, nonetheless, been efforts to establish a written catalogue. In 2000, the EU drew up the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Charter is not legally binding at present but would become so when the Lisbon Treaty comes into force.[75]
Although signing the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is a condition for EU membership,[76] the EU itself is not covered by the convention as it is neither a state[77] nor has the competence to accede.[78] Nonetheless the Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights co-operate to ensure their case-law does not conflict.[79] When the Lisbon Treaty comes into force the EU will be required to accede to the ECHR.[80] The EU opposes the death penalty and promotes its world wide abolition.[81] Abolition of the death penalty is a condition for EU membership.[82]
Foreign relations
Main articles: Foreign relations of the European Union and Common Foreign and Security Policy
Foreign policy cooperation between member states dates from the establishment of the Community in 1957, when member states negotiated as a bloc in international trade negotiations under the Common Commercial Policy.[83] Steps for a more wide ranging coordination in foreign relations began in 1970 with the establishment of European Political Cooperation which created an informal consultation process between member states with the aim of forming common foreign policies. It was not, however, until 1987 when European Political Cooperation was introduced on a formal basis by the Single European Act. EPC was renamed as the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) by the Maastricht Treaty.[84]
The Maastricht Treaty gives the CFSP the aims of promoting both the EU's own interests and those of the international community as a whole. This includes promoting international co-operation, respect for human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.[85]
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The Amsterdam Treaty created the office of the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (currently held by Javier Solana) to co-ordinate the EU's foreign policy.[86] The High Representative, in conjunction with the current Presidency, speaks on behalf of the EU in foreign policy matters and can have the task of articulating ambiguous policy positions created by disagreements among member states. The Common Foreign and Security Policy requires unanimity among the now 27 member states on the appropriate policy to follow on any particular issue. The unanimity and difficult issues treated under the CFSP makes disagreements, such as those which occurred over the war in Iraq,[87] not uncommon.
Besides the emerging international policy of the European Union, the international influence of the EU is also felt through enlargement. The perceived benefits of becoming a member of the EU act as an incentive for both political and economic reform in states wishing to fulfil the EU's accession criteria, and are considered an important factor contributing to the reform of former Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe.[88] This influence on the internal affairs of other countries is generally referred to as "soft power", as opposed to military "hard power".[89]
Besides the CFSP, the Commission also has its own representation in international organisations. This is primarily through the European Commissioner for External Relations, who works alongside the High Representative. In the UN, as an observer and working together, the EU has gained influence in areas such as aid due to its large contributions in that field (see below).[90] In the G8, the EU has rights of membership besides chairing/hosting summit meetings and is represented at meetings by the presidents of the Commission and the Council.[91] In the World Trade Organisation (WTO), where all 27 member states are represented, the EU as a body is represented by Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton.[92]
There has been discussion among political analysts as to whether the European Union represents a new type of geopolitical actor that focuses on supranational law and economic and political rivalries rather than military and ideological rivalries. The discussion is typified by the debate over the extent to which the European Union sees itself, or is seen by others, as a "postmodern superpower" – either now or in the foreseeable future.[93][94][95]
Military and defence
Main articles: European Security and Defence Policy and Military of the European Union
The predecessors of the European Union were not devised as a strong military alliance because NATO was largely seen as appropriate and sufficient for defence purposes.[96] Twenty-one EU members are members of NATO[97] while the remaining member states follow policies of neutrality.[98] The Western European Union (WEU) is a European security organisation related to the EU. In 1992, the WEU's relationship with the EU was defined, when the EU assigned it the "Petersberg tasks" (humanitarian missions such as peacekeeping and crisis management). These tasks were later transferred from the WEU to the EU by the Amsterdam Treaty and now form part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defence Policy. Elements of the WEU are currently being merged into the Common Foreign and Security Policy, and the President of the WEU is currently the EU's foreign policy chief.[99][100]
Following the Kosovo War in 1999, the European Council agreed that "the Union must have the capacity for autonomous action, backed by credible military forces, the means to decide to use them, and the readiness to do so, in order to respond to international crises without prejudice to actions by NATO". To that end, a number of efforts were made to increase the EU's military capability, notably the Helsinki Headline Goal process. After much discussion, the most concrete result was the EU Battlegroups initiative, each of which is planned to be able to deploy quickly about 1500 men.[101] EU forces have been deployed on peacekeeping missions from Africa to the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East.[102] EU military operations are supported by a number of bodies, including the European Defence Agency, satellite centre and the military staff.[103]
Humanitarian aid
Further information: European Community Humanitarian Aid Office
The European Community Humanitarian Aid Office, or "ECHO", provides humanitarian aid from the EU to developing countries. In 2006 its budget amounted to €671 million, 48% of which went to the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.[104] Counting the EU's own contributions and those of its member states together, the EU is the largest aid donor in the world.[105]
The EU's aid has previously been criticised by the eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe for being inefficient, mis-targeted and linked to economic objectives.[106] Furthermore, some charities have claimed European governments have inflated the amount they have spent on aid by incorrectly including money spent on debt relief, foreign students, and refugees. Under the de-inflated figures, the EU as a whole did not reach its internal aid target in 2006[107] and is expected not to reach the international target of 0.7% of gross national income until 2015.[108] However, four countries have reached that target, most notably Sweden, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark.[105] In 2005 EU aid was 0.34% of the GNP which was higher than that of either the United States or Japan.[109] The current commissioner for aid, Louis Michel, has called for aid to be delivered more rapidly, to greater effect, and on humanitarian principles.[110]
Economy
Main article: Economy of the European Union
Since its origin, the EU has established a single economic market across the territory of all its members. Currently, a single currency is in use between the 16 members of the eurozone.[111][112] If considered as a single economy, the EU generated an estimated nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of US$18.39 trillion (15.247 trillion international dollars based on purchasing power parity) in 2008, amounting to over 22% of the world's total economic output in terms of purchasing power parity,[8] which makes it the largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the second largest trade bloc economy in the world by PPP valuation of GDP. It is also the largest exporter ,[113] and largest importer[114] of goods and services, and the biggest trading partner to several large countries such as India and China.[115][116][117]
178 of the top 500 largest corporations measured by revenue (Fortune Global 500) have their headquarters in the EU.[118]
In May 2007 unemployment in the EU stood at 7%[119] while investment was at 21.4% of GDP, inflation at 2.2% and public deficit at −0.9% of GDP.[120] There is a great deal of variance for annual per capita income within individual EU states, these range from US$7,000 to US$69,000.[121]
Single market
Further information: Four Freedoms (European Union)
Two of the original core objectives of the European Economic Community were the development of a common market, subsequently renamed the single market, and a customs union between its member states. The single market involves the free circulation of goods, capital, people and services within the EU,[112] and the customs union involves the application of a common external tariff on all goods entering the market. Once goods have been admitted into the market they can not be subjected to customs duties, discriminatory taxes or import quotas, as they travel internally. The non-EU member states of Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland participate in the single market but not in the customs union.[36] Half the trade in the EU is covered by legislation harmonised by the EU.[122]
Free movement of capital is intended to permit movement of investments such as property purchases and buying of shares between countries.[123] Until the drive towards Economic and Monetary Union the development of the capital provisions had been slow. Post-Maastricht there has been a rapidly developing corpus of ECJ judgements regarding this initially neglected freedom. The free movement of capital is unique insofar as that it is granted equally to non-member states.
The free movement of persons means citizens can move freely between member states to live, work, study or retire in another country. This required the lowering of administrative formalities and recognition of professional qualifications of other states.[124]
The free movement of services and of establishment allows self-employed persons to move between member states in order to provide services on a temporary or permanent basis. While services account for between sixty and seventy percent of GDP, legislation in the area is not as developed as in other areas. This lacuna has been addressed by the recently passed Directive on services in the internal market which aims to liberalise the cross border provision of services.[125] According to the Treaty the provision of services is a residual freedom that only applies if no other freedom is being exercised.
Monetary union
Main article: Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union
The creation of a European single currency became an official objective of the EU in 1969. However, it was only with the advent of the Maastricht Treaty in 1993 that member states were legally bound to start the monetary union no later than 1 January 1999. On this date the euro was duly launched by eleven of the then fifteen member states of the EU. It remained an accounting currency until 1 January 2002, when euro notes and coins were issued and national currencies began to phase out in the eurozone, which by then consisted of twelve member states. The eurozone has since grown to sixteen countries, the most recent being Slovakia which joined on 1 January 2009.
All other EU member states, except Denmark and the United Kingdom, are legally bound to join the euro when the economic conditions are met, however only a few countries have set target dates for accession. Sweden has circumvented the requirement to join the euro area by not meeting the membership criteria.[citation needed]
The euro is designed to help build a single market by, for example: easing travel of citizens and goods, eliminating exchange rate problems, providing price transparency, creating a single financial market, price stability and low interest rates, and providing a currency used internationally and protected against shocks by the large amount of internal trade within the eurozone. It is also intended as a political symbol of integration and stimulus for more.[111] Since its launch the euro has become the second reserve currency in the world with a quarter of foreign exchanges reserves being in euro.[126]
The euro, and the monetary policies of those who have adopted it in agreement with the EU, are under the control of the European Central Bank (ECB).[127] There are eleven other currencies used in the EU.[111] A number of other countries outside the EU, such as Montenegro, use the euro without formal agreement with the ECB.[38]
Competition
Main article: European Community competition law
See also: European Commissioner for Competition
The EU operates a competition policy intended to ensure undistorted competition within the single market.[128] The Commission as the competition regulator for the single market is responsible for antitrust issues, approving mergers, breaking up cartels, working for economic liberalisation and preventing state aid.[129]
The Competition Commissioner, currently Neelie Kroes, is one of the most powerful positions in the Commission, notable for the ability to affect the commercial interests of trans-national corporations.[130] For example, in 2001 the Commission for the first time prevented a merger between two companies based in the United States (GE and Honeywell) which had already been approved by their national authority.[131] Another high profile case against Microsoft, resulted in the Commission fining Microsoft over €777 million following nine years of legal action.[132]
In negotiations on the Treaty of Lisbon, French President Nicolas Sarkozy succeeded in removing the words "free and undistorted competition" from the treaties. However, the requirement is maintained in an annex and it is unclear whether this will have any practical effect on EU policy.[133]
Budget
Main article: Budget of the European Union
The twenty-seven member state EU had an agreed budget of €120.7 billion for the year 2007 and €864.3 billion for the period 2007–2013,[134] representing 1.10% and 1.05% of the EU-27's GNI forecast for the respective periods. By comparison, the United Kingdom's expenditure for 2004 was estimated to be €759 billion, and France was estimated to have spent €801 billion. In 1960, the budget of the then European Economic Community was 0.03% of GDP.[135]
In the 2006 budget, the largest single expenditure item was agriculture with around 46.7% of the total budget.[136] Next came structural and cohesion funds with approximately 30.4% of the total.[136] Internal policies took up around 8.5%. Administration accounted for around 6.3%. External actions, the pre-accession strategy, compensations and reserves brought up the rear with approximately 4.9%, 2.1%, 1% and 0.1% respectively.[136]
Development
Agriculture
Main article: Common Agricultural Policy
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the oldest policies of the European Community, and was one of its core aims.[137] The policy has the objectives of increasing agricultural production, providing certainty in food supplies, ensuring a high quality of life for farmers, stabilising markets, and ensuring reasonable prices for consumers (article 33 of the Treaty of Rome).[138] It was, until recently, operated by a system of subsidies and market intervention. Until the 1990s, the policy accounted for over 60% of the then European Community's annual budget, and still accounts for around 35%.[137]
The policy's price controls and market interventions led to considerable overproduction, resulting in so-called butter mountains and wine lakes. These were intervention stores of produce bought up by the Community to maintain minimum price levels. In order to dispose of surplus stores, they were often sold on the world market at prices considerably below Community guaranteed prices, or farmers were offered subsidies (amounting to the difference between the Community and world prices) to export their produce outside the Community. This system has been criticised for under-cutting farmers in the developing world.[139] The overproduction has also been criticised for encouraging environmentally unfriendly intensive farming methods.[139] Supporters of CAP say that the economic support which it gives to farmers provides them with a reasonable standard of living, in what would otherwise be an economically unviable way of life. However, the EU's small farmers receive only 8% of CAP's available subsidies.[139]
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the CAP has been subject to a series of reforms. Initially these reforms included the introduction of set-aside in 1988, where a proportion of farm land was deliberately withdrawn from production, milk quotas (by the McSharry reforms in 1992) and, more recently, the 'de-coupling' (or disassociation) of the money farmers receive from the EU and the amount they produce (by the Fischler reforms in 2004). Agriculture expenditure will move away from subsidy payments linked to specific produce, toward direct payments based on farm size. This is intended to allow the market to dictate production levels, while maintaining agricultural income levels.[137] One of these reforms entailed the abolition of the EU's sugar regime, which previously divided the sugar market between member states and certain African-Caribbean nations with a privileged relationship with the EU.[140]
Energy
Main article: Energy policy of the European Union
| EU energy production | |
|---|---|
| 46% of total EU primary energy use | |
| Nuclear energy[141] | 29.3% |
| Coal & lignite | 21.9% |
| Gas | 19.4% |
| Renewable energy | 14.6% |
| Oil | 13.4% |
| Other | 1.4% |
| Net imports of energy | |
| 54% of total primary EU energy use | |
| Oil & petroleum products | 60.2% |
| Gas | 26.4% |
| Other | 13.4% |
In 2006, the 27 member states of the EU had a gross inland energy consumption of 1,825 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe).[142] Around 46% of the energy consumed was produced within the member states while 54% was imported.[142] In these statistics, nuclear energy is treated as primary energy produced in the EU, regardless of the source of the uranium, of which less than 3% is produced in the EU.[143]
The EU has had legislative power in the area of energy policy for most of its existence; this has its roots in the original European Coal and Steel Community. The introduction of a mandatory and comprehensive European energy policy was approved at the meeting of the European Council in October 2005, and the first draft policy was published in January 2007.[144]
The Commission has five key points in its energy policy: increase competition in the internal market, encourage investment and boost interconnections between electricity grids; diversify energy resources with better systems to respond to a crisis; establish a new treaty framework for energy co-operation with Russia while improving relations with energy-rich states in Central Asia[145] and North Africa; use existing energy supplies more efficiently while increasing use of renewable energy; and finally increase funding for new energy technologies.[144]
The EU currently imports 82% of its oil, 57% of its gas[146] and 97.48% of its uranium[143] demands. There are concerns that Europe's dependence on Russian energy is endangering the Union and its member countries. The EU is attempting to diversify its energy supply.[147]
Infrastructure
Further information: European Commissioner for Transport and European Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry
The EU is working to improve cross-border infrastructure within the EU, for example through the Trans-European Networks (TEN). Projects under TEN include the Channel Tunnel, LGV Est, the Fréjus Rail Tunnel, the Öresund Bridge and the Brenner Base Tunnel. In 2001 it was estimated that by 2010 the network would cover: 75,200 kilometres (46,700 mi) of roads; 78,000 kilometres (48,000 mi) of railways; 330 airports; 270 maritime harbours; and 210 internal harbours.[148][149]
The developing European transport policies will increase the pressure on the environment in many regions by the increased transport network. In the pre-2004 EU members, the major problem in transport deals with congestion and pollution. After the recent enlargement, the new states that joined since 2004 added the problem of solving accessibility to the transport agenda.[150] The Polish road network in particular was in poor condition: at Poland's accession to the EU, 4,600 roads needed to be upgraded to EU standards, demanding approximately €17 billion.[151]
Another infrastructure project is the Galileo positioning system. Galileo is a proposed Global Navigation Satellite System, to be built by the EU and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), and is to be operational by 2010. The Galileo project was launched partly to reduce the EU's dependency on the US-operated Global Positioning System, but also to give more complete global coverage and allow for far greater accuracy, given the aged nature of the GPS system.[152] It has been criticised by some due to costs, delays, and their perception of redundancy given the existence of the GPS system.[153]
Regional development
Further information: Regional policy of the European Union
There are substantial economical disparities across the EU. Even corrected for purchasing power, the difference between the richest and poorest regions (NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) is about a factor of ten. On the high end Frankfurt has €71,476 PPP per capita, Paris €68,989, and Inner London €67,798, while the three poorest NUTS, all in Romania, are Vaslui County with €3,690 PPP per capita, Botoşani County with €4,115, and Giurgiu County with €4,277.[154] Compared to the EU average, the United States GDP per capita is 35% higher and the Japanese GDP per capita is approximately 15% higher.[155]
There are a number of Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds to support development of underdeveloped regions of the EU. Such regions are primarily located in the new member states of East-Central Europe.[156] Several funds provide emergency aid, support for candidate members to transform their country to conform to the EU's standard (Phare, ISPA, and SAPARD), and support to the former USSR Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS). TACIS has now become part of the worldwide EuropeAid programme. The EU Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) sponsors research conducted by consortia from all EU members to work towards a single European Research Area.[157]
Environment
Further information: European Commissioner for the Environment and European Climate Change Programme
The first environmental policy of the European Community was launched in 1972. Since then it has addressed issues such as acid rain, the thinning of the ozone layer, air quality, noise pollution, waste and water pollution. The Water Framework Directive is an example of a water policy, aiming for rivers, lakes, ground and coastal waters to be of "good quality" by 2015. Wildlife is protected through the Natura 2000 programme and covers 30,000 sites throughout Europe.[158] In 2007, the Polish government sought to build a motorway through the Rospuda valley, but the Commission has been blocking construction as the valley is a wildlife area covered by the programme.[159]
The REACH regulation was a piece of EU legislation designed to ensure that 30,000 chemicals in daily use are tested for their safety.[160] In 2006, toxic waste spill off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, from a European ship, prompted the Commission to look into legislation regarding toxic waste. With members such as Spain now having criminal laws against shipping toxic waste, the Commission proposed to create criminal sentences for "ecological crimes". Although the Commission's right to propose criminal law was contested, it was confirmed in this case by the Court of Justice.[161]
In 2007, member states agreed that the EU is to use 20% renewable energy in the future and that is has to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels.[162] This includes measures that in 2020, one-tenth of all cars and trucks in EU 27 should be running on biofuels. This is considered to be one of the most ambitious moves of an important industrialised region to fight global warming.[163]
At the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference, dealing with the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the EU has proposed at 50% cut in greenhouse gases by 2050.[164] The EU's attempts to cut its carbon footprint appear to have also been aided by an expansion of Europe's forests which, between 1990 and 2005, grew 10% in western Europe and 15% in Eastern Europe. During this period they soaked up 126 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 11% of EU emissions from human activities.[165]
Education and research
Further information: Educational policies and initiatives of the European Union and Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development
Education and science are areas where the EU's role is limited to supporting national governments. In education, the policy was mainly developed in the 1980s in programmes supporting exchanges and mobility. The most visible of these has been the ERASMUS programme, a university exchange programme which began in 1987. In its first 20 years it has supported international exchange opportunities for well over 1.5 million university and college students and has become a symbol of European student life.[166] There are now similar programmes for school pupils and teachers, for trainees in vocational education and training, and for adult learners in the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. These programmes are designed to encourage a wider knowledge of other countries and to spread good practices in the education and training fields across the EU.[167] Through its support of the Bologna process the EU is supporting comparable standards and compatible degrees across Europe.
Scientific development is facilitated through the EU's Framework Programmes, the first of which started in 1984. The aims of EU policy in this area are to co-ordinate and stimulate research. The independent European Research Council allocates EU funds to European or national research projects.[168] The Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) deals in a number of areas, for example energy where it aims to develop a diverse mix of renewable energy for the environment and to reduce dependence on imported fuels.[169]
Since January 2000 the European Commission has set its sights on a more ambitious objective, known as the European Research Area, and has extensively funded research in a few key areas. This has the support of all member states, and extends the existing financing structure of the frameworks. It aims to focus on co-ordination, sharing knowledge, ensuring mobility of researchers around Europe, improving conditions for researchers and encouraging links with business and industry as well as removing any legal and administrative barriers.[170] The EU is involved with six other countries to develop ITER, a fusion reactor which will be built in the EU at Cadarache. ITER builds on the previous project, Joint European Torus, which is currently the largest nuclear fusion reactor in the world.[171] The Commission foresees this technology to be generating energy in the EU by 2050.[144] It has observer status within CERN, there are various agreements with ESA and there is collaboration with ESO.[172] These organisations are not under the framework of the EU, but membership heavily overlaps between them.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of the European Union
| City | City limits (2006) |
Density
/km²
(city limits) |
Density
/sq mi
(city limits) |
Urban area (2005) |
LUZ (2004) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin | 3,410,000 | 3,815 | 9,880 | 3,761,000 | 4,971,331 |
| London | 7,512,400 | 4,761 | 12,330 | 9,332,000 | 11,917,000 |
| Madrid | 3,228,359 | 5,198 | 13,460 | 4,990,000 | 5,804,829 |
| Paris | 2,153,600 | 24,672 | 63,900 | 9,928,000 | 11,089,124 |
| Rome | 2,708,395 | 2,105 | 5,450 | 2,867,000 | 3,457,690 |
The combined population of all 27 member states has been estimated at 499,794,855 as of January 2009.[174]
The EU's population is 7.3% of the world total, yet the EU covers just 3% of the Earth's land, amounting to a population density of 113 km2 (44 sq mi) making the EU one of the most densely populated regions of the world. One third of EU citizens live in cities of over a million people, rising to 80% living in urban areas generally.[175] The EU is home to more global cities than any other region in the world.[176] It contains 16 cities with populations of over one million.
Besides many large cities, the EU also includes several densely populated regions that have no single core but have emerged from the connection of several cites and are now encompassing large metropolitan areas. The largest are Rhine-Ruhr having approximately 11.5 million inhabitants (Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf et al.), Randstad approx. 7 million (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht et al.), Frankfurt/Rhine-Main approx. 5.8 million (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden et al.), the Flemish diamond approx. 5.5 million (urban area in between Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven and Ghent), the Upper Silesian Industrial Region approx. 3.5 million (Katowice, Sosnowiec et al.), and the Öresund Region approx. 2.5 million (Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden).[177]
Languages
Main article: Languages of the European Union
| Language | Native Speakers | Total |
|---|---|---|
| English | 13% | 51% |
| German | 18% | 32% |
| French | 12% | 26% |
| Italian | 13% | 16% |
| Spanish | 9% | 15% |
| Polish | 9% | 10% |
| Dutch | 5% | 6% |
| Greek | 3% | 3% |
| Czech | 2% | 3% |
| Swedish | 2% | 3% |
| Hungarian | 2% | 2% |
| Portuguese | 2% | 2% |
| Catalan | 1% | 2% |
| Slovak | 1% | 2% |
| Danish | 1% | 1% |
| Finnish | 1% | 1% |
| Lithuanian | 1% | 1% |
| Slovene | 1% | 1% |
|
Published in 2006, before the |
||
Among the many languages and dialects used in the EU, it 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, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish.[180][181] Important documents, such as legislation, are translated into every official language. The European Parliament provides translation into all languages for documents and its plenary sessions.[182] Some institutions use only a handful of languages as internal working languages.[183] Language policy is the responsibility of member states, but EU institutions promote the learning of other languages.[184][185]
German is the most widely spoken mother tongue (about 88.7 million people as of 2006), followed by English, Italian and French. English is by far the most spoken foreign language at over half (51%) of the population, with German and French following. 56% of European citizens are able to engage in a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue.[186] Most official languages of the EU belong to the Indo-European language family, except Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian, which belong to the Uralic language family, and Maltese, which is an Afroasiatic language. Most EU official languages are written in the Latin alphabet except Bulgarian, written in Cyrillic, and Greek, written in the Greek alphabet.[187]
Besides the 23 official languages, there are about 150 regional and minority languages, spoken by up to 50 million people.[187] Of these, only the Spanish regional languages (Catalan/Valencian, Galician, and the non-Indo-European Basque), Scottish Gaelic and Welsh [188] can be used by citizens in communication with the main European institutions.[189] Although EU programmes can support regional and minority languages, the protection of linguistic rights is a matter for the individual member states. Though the population of Romani speakers is triple[190] that of Welsh speakers (despite the Porajmos) and the history of Romani people in Europe is seven centuries long, their language is not official in any EU state.
Besides the many regional languages, a broad variety of languages from other parts of the world are spoken by immigrant communities in the member states: Turkish, Maghrebi Arabic, Russian, Urdu, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Ukrainian, Punjabi and Balkan languages are spoken in many parts of the EU. Many older immigrant communities are bilingual, being fluent in both the local (EU) language and in that of their ancestral community. Migrant languages have no formal status or recognition in the EU or in the EU countries, although from 2007 they are eligible for support from the language teaching section of the EU's Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013.[187]
Religion
Main article: Religion in the European Union
The EU is a secular body with no formal connections to any religion and no mention of religion in any current or proposed treaty.[138] Discussion over the draft texts of the European Constitution and later the Treaty of Lisbon included proposals to mention Christianity or God, or both, in the preamble of the text, but the idea faced opposition and was dropped.[192]
Emphasis on Christianity stems from this being the largest religion in Europe, and thus of the EU. It divides between Roman Catholicism, a wide range of Protestant churches (especially in northern Europe) and Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic (in south eastern Europe). Other religions such as Islam and Judaism are also represented in the EU population. As of 2009[update], the EU had an estimated Muslim population of 13 million,[193] and an estimated Jewish population of over a million.[194]
Eurostat's Eurobarometer opinion polls show that the majority of EU citizens have some form of belief system, with only 21% seeing it as important. Many countries have experienced falling church attendance and membership in recent years.[195] The 2005 Eurobarometer showed that of the European citizens (of the 25 members at that time), 52% believed in a god, 27% in some sort of spirit or life force and 18% had no form of belief. The countries where the fewest people reported a religious belief were the Czech Republic (19%) and Estonia (16%),[196] The most religious countries are Malta (95%; predominantly Roman Catholic), and Cyprus and Romania both with about 90% of citizens believing in God (both predominantly Eastern Orthodox). Across the EU, belief was higher among women, increased with age, those with religious upbringing, those who left school at 15 with a basic education, and those "positioning themselves on the right of the political scale (57%)."[196]
Other significant religions present in the EU territories are Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism with the latter two having a strong presence in the United Kingdom.[197]
Culture
Further information: Culture of Europe and Cultural policies of the European Union
Policies affecting cultural matters are mainly set by individual member states. Cultural co-operation between member states has been a concern of the EU since its inclusion as a community competency in the Maastricht Treaty.[198] Actions taken in the cultural area by the EU include the Culture 2000 7-year programme,[198] the European Cultural Month event,[199] the Media Plus programme,[200] orchestras such as the European Union Youth Orchestra[201] and the European Capital of Culture programme – where one or more cities in the EU are selected for one year to assist the cultural development of that city.[202] In addition, the EU gives grants to cultural projects (totalling 233 in 2004) and has launched a Web portal 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".[203]
Within the EU, politicians, such as the President of the European Parliament, appeal to a shared European historical/cultural heritage, including Greek philosophy,Roman law, the Judeo-Christian heritage, and a tradition of modern freedom and democracy, but also negative elements such as the World wars.[204] The creation, since 2006, of a Franco-German History Coursebook for grades 10,11 and 12 of upper secondary school in France and Germany is a symbolic step toward the constitution of a "shared vision of History".[205]
Sport
Further information: Sport in Europe and Sport policies of the European Union
Sport is mainly the responsibility of individual member states or other international organisations rather than that of the EU. However, some EU policies have had an impact on sport, such as the free movement of workers which was at the core of the Bosman ruling, which prohibited national football leagues from imposing quotas on foreign players with European citizenship.[206]
Under the proposed Treaty of Lisbon sports would be given a special status which would exempt this sector from much of the EU's economic rules. This followed lobbying by governing organisations such as the International Olympic Committee and FIFA, due to objections over the applications of free market principles to sport which led to an increasing gap between rich and poor clubs.[207]
Several European sports associations are consulted in the formulation of the EU's sports policy, including FIBA, UEFA, EHF, IIHF, FIRA and CEV.[208] All EU member states and their respective national sport associations participate in European sport organisations such as UEFA.[209]
See also
References
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- ^ The New Oxford American Dictionary, Second Edn., Erin McKean (editor), 2051 pages, May 2005, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-517077-6.
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- ^ Not including overseas territories
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- ^ "Oxford Dictionary of English: European 5 b. spec. Designating a developing series of economic and political unions between certain countries of western (and later also eastern) Europe from 1952 onwards, as European Economic Community, European Community, European Union.". http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50078844?query_type=word&queryword=European&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&result_place=2&search_id=XNLm-9KGPpN-8152&hilite=50078844. Retrieved 27 October 2010.
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- ^ a b "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2009 Edition". International Monetary Fund. April 2009. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2009/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2007&ey=2009&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=001%2C998&s=NGDPD%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPSH&grp=1&a=1&pr.x=50&pr.y=9. Retrieved 24 April 2009. "
Gross domestic product, current prices; U.S. dollars, Billions;
2007=16,927.173
2008=18,394.115
2009=16,190.981 [projection]
Gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) valuation of country GDP; Current international dollar, Billions;
2007=14,762.109
2008=15,247.163
2009=14,851.385 [projection]
GDP based on PPP share of world total
2007=22.605%
2008=22.131% 2009=21.519% [projection]
World "GDP", current prices; U.S. dollars, Billions;
2007=54,840.873
2008=60,689.812
2009=57,228.373 [projection]
These data were published in 2009. Data for 2009 are projections based on a number of assumptions." - ^ European Commission. "The EU Single Market: Fewer barriers, more opportunities". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/index_en.htm. Retrieved 27 September 2007."Activities of the European Union: Internal Market". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/pol/singl/index_en.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ^ "Common commercial policy". Europa Glossary. Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/commercial_policy_en.htm. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
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- ^ "Abolition of internal borders and creation of a single EU external frontier". Europa web portal. 2005. Archived from the original on 2008-01-13. http://web.archive.org/web/20080113173116/http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/freetravel/frontiers/fsj_freetravel_schengen_en.htm. Retrieved 24 January 2007.[dead link]
- ^ "European Union". Encyclopædia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/196399/European-Union. Retrieved 1 July 2009: "international organisation comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies...."
- ^ a b "European Union". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html. Retrieved 11 October 2009: Introduction: "The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a regional economic agreement among six neighbouring states in 1951 to today's supranational organisation of 27 countries across the European continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the annals of history...."
- ^ Anneli Albi (2005). "Implications of the European constitution". EU enlargement and the constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 204. ISBN 9067042854. http://books.google.com/books?id=GXDxmx_1RmcC&pg=PA204&dq=%22European+union%22+%22Sui+generis%22+%22supranational+organisation%22&ei=CS5RSuvfGZWOyASXgfnrAg: "In practical terms, the EU is perhaps still best characterised as a ‘supranational organisation sui generis’: this term has proved relatively uncontroversial in respect of national constitutional sensitivities, being at the same time capable of embracing new facets of integration."
- ^ Benelux customs and economic reforms greatly foreshadowed those of the EU
- ^ Benelux social reforms greatly foreshadowed those of the EU
- ^ Benelux parliamentary reforms greatly foreshadowed those of the EU
- ^ "The political consequences". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu/?doc=242&lang=3. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ "Declaration of 9 May 1950". European Commission. http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/9-may/decl_en.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ a b "A peaceful Europe - the beginnings of cooperation". European Commission. http://europa.eu/abc/history/1945-1959/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "Merging the executives". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=473. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "The first enlargement". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=555. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "The new European Parliament". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=571. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "Negotiations for enlargement". European NAvigator. http://www.ena.lu?lang=2&doc=6525. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "Schengen agreement". BBC News. 30 April 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/europe/euro-glossary/1230052.stm. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
- ^ "History of the flag". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/abc/symbols/emblem/index_en.htm. Retrieved 13 March 2009.
- ^ "1980-1989 The changing face of Europe - the fall of the Berlin Wall". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/abc/history/1980-1989/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ a b "A decade of further expansion". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/abc/history/2000_today/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "European Countries". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ "EU institutions and other bodies". Europa (web portal). http://europa.eu/institutions/index_en.htm. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ "Accession criteria (Copenhagen criteria)". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/accession_criteria_copenhague_en.htm. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ "European Commission - Enlargement - Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/countries/index_en.htm. Retrieved 1 August 2009.
- ^ "Enlargement Newsletter". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/press_corner/newsletter/index_en.htm. Retrieved 24 November 2008.
- ^ a b European Commission. "The European Economic Area (EEA)". Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2007-12-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20071230190313/http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/eea/index.htm. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ "The EU's relations with Switzerland". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/switzerland/intro/index.htm. Retrieved 16 September 2007.
- ^ a b European Commission. "Use of the euro in the world". The euro outside the euro area. Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/the_euro/euro_in_world9369_en.htm. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
- ^ UN
- ^ National Geographic
- ^ "Turkish Cypriot Community". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/turkish_cypriot_community/index_en.htm. Retrieved 19 April 2009.
- ^ Figure including the four French overseas departments (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion), which are an integral part of the EU, but excluding the French overseas collectivities and territories, which are not part of the EU.
- ^ "European countries". Europa web portal. 2007. http://europa.eu/abc/european_countries/index_en.htm. Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ^ "Countries of the Earth". home.comcast.net. 2006. http://home.comcast.net/~igpl/Countries.html. Retrieved 8 August 2007.
- ^ "Humid Continental Climate". The physical environment. University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. 2007. http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/climate_systems/humid_continental.html. Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ^ "Pillars of the European Union". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/eu_pillars_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ "Institutions: The European Commission". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/comm/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "Institutions: The European Parliament". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/parliament/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ "Institutions: The Council of the European Union". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/council/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ EUR-Lex. "European Community consolidated treaty, (article 220, The court of Justice)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
- ^ "The Court of Justice of the European Communities". Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2007-12-14. http://web.archive.org/web/20071214133406/http://www.curia.europa.eu/en/instit/presentationfr/cje.htm. Retrieved 14 September 2007.;"The Court of First Instance". Europa web portal. http://curia.europa.eu/en/instit/presentationfr/tpi.htm. Retrieved 14 September 2007. "Institutions: Court of Justice". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/institutions/inst/justice/index_en.htm. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ EUR-Lex. "European Community consolidated treaty, (article 225 (1), The court of First Instance)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
- ^ "Sources of EU law". European Commission. Archived from the original on 2008-02-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20080228193407/http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/general_information/legal_information_and_eu_law/sources_eu_law/index_en.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2007.
- ^ a b "European Union consolidated treaty, (article 249, provisions for making regulations)" (PDF). European Commission. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
- ^ According to the principle of Direct Effect first invoked in the Court of Justice's decision in Van Gend en Loos v. Nederlanse Administratie Der Belastingen, Eur-Lex .. See: Craig and de Búrca, ch. 5.
- ^ According to the principle of Supremacy as established by the ECJ in Case 6/64, Falminio Costa v. ENEL [1964] ECR 585. See Craig and de Búrca, ch. 7. See also: Factortame Ltd. v. Secretary of State for Transport (No. 2) [1991] 1 AC 603, Solange II (Re Wuensche Handelsgesellschaft, BVerfG decision of 22 Oct. 1986 [1987] 3 CMLR 225,265) and Frontini v. Ministero delle Finanze [1974] 2 CMLR 372; Raoul George Nicolo [1990] 1 CMLR 173.
- ^ See: Case 34/73, Variola v. Amministrazione delle Finanze [1973] ECR 981.
- ^ To do otherwise would require the drafting of legislation which would have to cope with the frequently divergent legal systems and administrative systems of all of the now 27 member states. See Craig and de Búrca, p. 115
- ^ For a good example of this see Title IV of Part Three of the Treaty of Rome, Council Decision (2004/927/EC) of 22 December 2004 providing for certain areas covered by Title IV of Part Three of the Treaty establishing the European Community to be governed by the procedure laid down in Article 251 of that Treaty and the Protocol on Article 67 of the Treaty establishing the European Community attached to the Nice Treaty.
- ^ "Decision-making in the European Union". http://europa.eu/institutions/decision-making/index_en.htm. Retrieved 14 September 2007. See: European Union legislative procedure.
- ^ "Decision-making in the European Union". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/institutions/decision-making/index_en.htm. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
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- ^ "Eurojust coordinating cross-border prosecutions at EU level". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/criminal/eurojust/fsj_criminal_eurojust_en.htm. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
- ^ Frontex. "What is Frontex?". Europa web portal. http://www.frontex.europa.eu/. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
- ^ "Abolition of internal borders and creation of a single Union external frontier". Europa web portal. 2005. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/freetravel/frontiers/fsj_freetravel_schengen_en.htm. Retrieved 24 January 2007.[dead link]
- ^ "European arrest warrant replaces extradition between EU Member States". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/fsj/criminal/extradition/fsj_criminal_extradition_en.htm. Retrieved 4 September 2007.
- ^ "Jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in matrimonial matters and in matters of parental responsibility (Brussels II)". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33194.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
- ^ "Minimum standards on the reception of applicants for asylum in Member States". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33150.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
- ^ "Specific Programme: 'Criminal Justice'". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l10110.htm. Retrieved 5 September 2008.
- ^ EUR-Lex. "European Community consolidated treaty, (articles 39 and 141), prohibition of national or sexual discrimination)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
- ^ EUR-Lex. "Amsterdam treaty article 2 s.7 amending European Community consolidated treaty article 13, combating discrimination)". Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/11997D/htm/11997D.html#0001010001. Retrieved 28 February 2008.
- ^ Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of racial or ethnic origin (OJ L 180, 19.7.2000, p. 22–26); Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (OJ L 303, 2.12.2000, p. 16–22).
- ^ a b "Respect for fundamental rights in the EU - general development". European Parliament Fact Sheets. The European Parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/2_1_1_en.htm. Retrieved 6 September 2008.
- ^ Case 11/70, Internationale Handelsgesellschaft v. Einfuhr und Vorratstelle für Getreide und Futtermittel; Article 6(2) of the Maastrict Treaty (as amended).
- ^ By virtue of Article 1(8) of the Lisbon Treaty
- ^ It is effectively treated as one of the Copenhagen criteria [2]. It should be noted that this is a political and not a legal requirement for membership.
- ^ The European Convention on Human Rights is currently only open to members of the Council of Europe (Article 59.1 of the Convention) [3], and only states may become member of the Council of Europe (Article 4 of the Statute of the Council of Europe) [4].
- ^ Opinion (2/92) of the European Court of Justice on "Accession by the Community to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" 1996 E.C.R. I-1759 (in French), ruled that the European Community did not have the competence to accede to the ECHR.
- ^ Juncker, Jean-Claude (2006). "Council of Europe - European Union: "A sole ambition for the European continent"" (PDF). Council of Europe. http://assembly.coe.int/Sessions/2006/speeches/20060411_report_JCJuncker_EN.pdf. Retrieved 28 July 2007.
- ^ By virtue of Article 1(8) of the Lisbon Treaty, however this will only become possible when Protocol 14 of the ECHR, which allows for EU accession to the ECHR, comes into force.
- ^ European Commission. "EU Policy on Death Penalty". Europa Web Portal. http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/human_rights/adp/index_en.htm. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
- ^ European Commission. "The death penalty in Europe". Europa Web Portal. http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/news/information_dossiers/conference_death_penalty/page_2_en.htm. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
- ^ "Qualified-Majority Voting: Common commercial policy". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/archives/igc2000/geninfo/fact-sheets/fact-sheet6/index_en.htm. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ^ The European commission. "European political co-operation (EPC)". Europa Glossary. Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/scadplus/glossary/european_political_cooperation_en.htm. Retrieved 3 September 2007.
- ^ EUR-Lex. "European Union consolidated treaty, (article 11, common foreign policy)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/ce321/ce32120061229en00010331.pdf. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
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- ^ Bildt, Carl (2005). "Europe must keep its 'soft power'". Financial Times on Centre for European Reform. http://www.cer.org.uk/articles/bildt_ft_1june05.html. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ "EU heading for single UN seat, UN official says". EUobserver. 2007. http://euobserver.com/24/22553. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ Delegation of the European Commission to Japan. "EU and the G8". Europa web portal. http://www.deljpn.ec.europa.eu/union/showpage_en_union.external.g8.php. Retrieved 26 September 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "The EU and the world trade organisation". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/newround/index_en.htm. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ Kagan, Robert (2008-02-06). "New Europe, Old Russia". The Washington Post: p. A19. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/05/AR2008020502879.html. Retrieved 2009-07-26. "They imagined that the world would come to replicate the European Union, and that when it did, the European Union would be a postmodern superpower."
- ^ McCormick, John (2006-04-20). The European Union: A Post-Modern Superpower. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the The Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois Online. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p139473_index.html. "Where many American policymakers still opt for cold war-style military analyses of the international system, the EU has emerged as a post-modern superpower, emphasising non-military options and representing a competing set of values that fits more closely with the post-cold war international system. The old international system, with its military and ideological rivalries, has been replaced by a new international system based on economic, political and social rivalries, in which the Americans and the Europeans champion distinctive values, offer competing analyses of international problems, and pursue different approaches to dealing with those problems.".
- ^ Youngs, Richard (September 2007). "Europe and the Gulf: Strategic Neglect" (PDF). Studia Diplomatica – the Brussels Journal of International Relations (Egmont – The Royal Institute For International Relations) VOL. LX, 2007 (No. 1): 29–42. ISBN 978-2-930432-09-0. ISSN 0770-2965. http://www.irri-kiib.be/SD/Studia_2007-01.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-26. ". . . an analysis of European policy in the Gulf provides a useful, if sobering, antidote to those today celebrating how,fifty years on from Rome, the EU has apparently developed into an influential, normative, post-modern superpower.".
- ^ Wilkinson, Paul. International Relations. Oxford University Press. p. 100. "The EU states have never felt the need to make the organization into a powerful military alliance. They already have NATO to undertake that task."
- ^ "NATO Member Countries". http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/nato_countries.htm. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
- ^ Laursen, Finn (29 May-1 June 1997). "The EU 'neutrals,' the CFSP and defence policy". Biennial Conference of the European Union Studies Association. Seattle, WA.: University of Pittsburgh. pp. 27. http://aei.pitt.edu/2657/. Retrieved 2009-07-24.
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- ^ European Commission. "EU Security Police & the role of the European Commission: Chronology". Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2007-12-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20071226072715/http://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/cfsp/esdp/chrono.htm. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
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- ^ Council of the European Union. "EU security and defence Operations". Europa web portal. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=268&lang=EN&mode=g. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ Council of the European Union. "ESPD Structures". Europa web portal. http://www.consilium.europa.eu/cms3_fo/showPage.asp?id=279&lang=EN&mode=g. Retrieved 26 June 2007.
- ^ European Commission (2006). "DG for humanitarian aid - ECHO, financial report 2006" (PDF). Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2008-03-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20080307042553/http://ec.europa.eu/echo/pdf_files/financial_report.pdf. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
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- ^ OECD (3 April 2007). "Development aid from OECD countries fell 5.1% in 2006". http://www.oecd.org/document/17/0,2340,en_2649_201185_38341265_1_1_1_1,00.html. Retrieved 6 April 2009.
- ^ European Commission. "Overviews of the European Union activities: Development". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/pol/dev/overview_en.htm. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
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- ^ a b c European Commission. "The Euro: our currency". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/euro/our_currency_en.htm.
- ^ a b "The Single Market". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/index_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ "Rank Order - Exports". The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2078rank.html. Retrieved 21 August 2007.
- ^ "World trade report 2009". WTO information website. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/anrep_e/world_trade_report09_e.pdf. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ^ "China now EU's biggest import market". People's Daily Online. 31 January 2007. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200701/31/eng20070131_346408.html. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
- ^ "EU now biggest trading partner of China". Chinese Embassy. 15 September 2006. http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/xw/t272113.htm. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
- ^ "India and the EU: strategic partners?". Centre for European Reform. February/March 2006. http://www.cer.org.uk/articles/46_grant.html. Retrieved 4 April 2008.
- ^ "Fortune Global 500 2009". CNN. 20 July 2009. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/countries/Australia.html. Retrieved 22 September 2009.
- ^ "Euro area and EU 27 unemployment down to 7.0%" (PDF). Europa web portal. 3 July 2007. Archived from the original on 2008-03-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20080307042549/http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2007_MONTH_07/3-03072007-EN-AP.PDF. Retrieved 1 November 2007.
- ^ "World Economic Outlook Database, April 2007". International Monetary Fund. April 2007. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2007/01/data/weorept.aspx?sy=2006&ey=2008&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&pr1.x=80&pr1.y=6&c=998&s=NID_NGDP%2CNGSD_NGDP%2CPCPIPCH%2CGGB_NGDP%2CBCA%2CBCA_NGDPD&grp=1&a=1=Eur4. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
- ^ "European Union". World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ee.html. Retrieved 13 March 2009.[dead link]
- ^ European Commission. "A Single Market for goods". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_18_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "A Single Market for Capital". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_42_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "Living and working in the Single Market". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_15_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "A Single Market for Services". [[Europa (web portal)|]]. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/top_layer/index_19_en.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ DB Research (4 May 2007). "Euro riding high as an inter- national reserve currency" (PDF). Deutsche Bank AG. http://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/DBR_INTERNET_DE-PROD/PROD0000000000209994.PDF.
- ^ "ECB, ESCB and the Eurosystem". European Central Bank. http://www.ecb.int/ecb/orga/escb/html/index.en.html. Retrieved 15 September 2007.
- ^ Article 3(1)(g) of the Treaty of Rome
- ^ European Commission. "Competition: making markets work better". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/comm/competition/index_en.html. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ Lungescu, Oana (23 July 2004). "Examining the EU executive". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/letter_from_america/3921303.stm. Retrieved 18 September 2007.
- ^ "The Commission prohibits GE's acquisition of Honeywell". Europa web portal. 3 July 2001. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/01/939. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ Gow, David (22 October 2007). "Microsoft caves in to European Commission". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/oct/22/microsoft.microsoft. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ "EU competition to remain in place". BBC News. 22 June 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6231684.stm. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ "Q&A on Interinstitutional Agreement on Budgetary Discipline and Sound Financial Management 2007-2013". http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/204&format=HTML.
- ^ David Smith., David (1999). Will Europe work?. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1861971028. http://www.euro-know.org/articles/wew.html. Retrieved 13 March 2009.[dead link]
- ^ a b c European Commission. "Detailed data 2000-2007" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/budget/library/publications/fin_reports/fin_report_07_data_en.pdf. Retrieved 7 July 2008.
- ^ a b c Stead, David; Robert Whaples (eds) (22 June 2007). "Common Agricultural Policy". EH.Net Encyclopedia. http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/Stead.CAP. Retrieved 30 August 2007.
- ^ a b EUR-Lex. "Consolidated Treaties on European Union and establishing the European Community" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2006:321E:0001:0331:EN:pdf. Retrieved 25 June 2007.
- ^ a b c Jeffery, Simon (26 June 2007). "The EU common agricultural policy". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jun/26/eu.politics1. Retrieved 30 August 2007.
- ^ "Sugar: Commission proposes more market-, consumer- and trade-friendly regime". [[Europa (web portal)|]]. 14 April 2007. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/04/915&format=HTML&aged=1&language=EN&guiLanguage=en. Retrieved 30 August 2007.
- ^ Note that although almost all Uranium is imported,
Nuclear Power is considered primary energy produced in the EU - ^ a b Eurostat (10 July 2008). "Energy consumption and production: EU27 energy dependence rate at 54% in 2006: Energy consumption stable" (PDF). Press release. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/pls/portal/docs/PAGE/PGP_PRD_CAT_PREREL/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008/PGE_CAT_PREREL_YEAR_2008_MONTH_07/8-10072008-EN-AP.PDF. Retrieved 12 September 2008. "
In the EU27, gross inland energy consumption was 1 825 million tonnes of oil equivalent (toe) in 2006, stable compared with 2005, while energy production decreased by 2.3% to 871 mn toe...
Gross inland consumption is defined as primary production plus imports, recovered products and stock change, less exports and fuel supply to maritime bunkers (for seagoing ships of all flags)...
A tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is a standardised unit defined on the basis of one tonne of oil having a net calorific value of 41.868 Gigajoules." - ^ a b "EU supply and demand for nuclear fuels" (PDF). Euratom Supply Agency — Annual Report 2007. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. 2008. p. 22. ISBN 978-92-79-09437-8. http://ec.europa.eu/euratom/ar/last.pdf. Retrieved 1 March 2009. "European uranium mining supplied just below 3 % of the total EU needs, coming from the Czech Republic and Romania (a total of 526 tU)."
Nuclear energy and renewable energy are treated differently from oil, gas , and coal in this respect. - ^ a b c "Q&A: EU energy plans". BBC. 9 March 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4783996.stm. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ Shamil Midkhatovich Yenikeyeff (November 2008) (PDF). Kazakhstan's Gas: Export Markets and Export Routes. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. http://www.oxfordenergy.org/pdfs/NG25.pdf. Retrieved 12 November 2008.
- ^ "'Low-carbon economy' proposed for Europe". MSNBC. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16560106/. Retrieved 24 January 2007.
- ^ European Parliament. "Ukraine-Russia gas dispute — call for stronger EU energy policy". Europa web portal. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20060112STO04233&secondRef=0. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
- ^ European Commission (1 October 2003). "The trans-European transport network: new guidelines and financial rules" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/ten/transport/revision/doc/revision_1692_memo_en.pdf. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ Mirea, Silvia. "The trans-European transport network: new guidelines and financial rules". The Railway Journal. http://www.cfr.ro/jf/engleza/0304/ten-t.htm. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ "White Paper on Transport". Euractiv. 22 September 2004. http://www.euractiv.com/en/transport/white-paper-transport/article-129628. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ "Transport – How Quickly will Polish Roads Improve After Accession". Urząd Komitetu Integracji Europejskiej. 29 May 2003. http://www.ukie.gov.pl/WWW/en.nsf/0/574AB36381D2F551C1256E82004F9470?Open. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ Barrot, Jacques. "Jacques Barrot Home Page, Commission vice president for transport". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/barrot/index_en.htm. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ McKie, Robin (15 July 2007). "Sat-nav rival could crash and burn". Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/15/spaceexploration.europeanunion. Retrieved 11 August 2007.
- ^ Eurostat. "Table: E3GDP95=Gross domestic product (GDP) at current market prices at NUTS level 3". http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/extraction/evalight/EVAlight.jsp?A=1&language=fr&root=/theme1/reg/reg_e3gdp. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
- ^ Eurostat (18 December 2006). "GDP per capita in the Member States ranged from 48% to 251% of the EU25 average in 2005". Europa web portal. http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/06/166&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ "EU Structural and Cohesion Funds". Business 2000. http://www.business2000.ie/cases/cases_8th/case12.htm. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ "7th Research Framework Programme (FP7)". Euractiv. 2004. http://www.euractiv.com/en/science/7th-research-framework-programme-fp7/article-117494. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ Dimas, Stavros (23 March 2007). "Celebrating the Environmental Union". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6476273.stm. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ Easton, Adam (31 July 2007). "Poland ends stand-off with EU over road plans". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/640968f2-3f5b-11dc-b034-0000779fd2ac.html. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ "EU chemicals directive agreed". RTÉ News And Current Affairs. 1 December 2006. http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1201/reach.html. Retrieved 15 August 2007.
- ^ Charter, David (2007). "A new legal environment". E!Sharp (People Power Process): pp. 23–5.
- ^ Aldred, Jessica. "EU sets 20% target for carbon cuts". guardian.co.uk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jan/23/climatechange.eu1. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
- ^ Ames, Paul (9 March 2007). "European Union agrees on ambitious plan to fight global warming". Discovery Channel, on Valcent Products website. http://www.valcent.net/s/RelatedArticles.asp?ReportID=183114&_Type=Related-Articles&_Title=European-Union-agrees-on-ambitious-plan-to-fight-global-warming. Retrieved 9 March 2007.
- ^ "In Bali, EU Floats 50% Greenhouse Gas Cut". BusinessWeek. 4 December 2007. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2007/gb2007124_968205.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_top+stories. Retrieved 7 December 2007.
- ^ "Expanding EU forests may aid climate goals". Reuters. 29 November 2007. http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2920316220071129. Retrieved 7 December 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "The Erasmus programme celebrates its 20th anniversary". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/erasmus20_en.html. Retrieved 21 July 2007.; Jean-Sébastien, Lefebvre (22 January 2007). "Erasmus turns 20 - time to grow up?". Café Babel. http://www.cafebabel.com/en/article.asp?T=T&Id=9702. Retrieved 10 August 2007.
- ^ EACEA. "About the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency". Europa web portal. http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/index.htm. Retrieved 21 July 2007.; European Commission. "Lifelong Learning Programme". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/national_en.html. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ European Research Council. "What is the ERC?". Europa web portal. http://erc.europa.eu/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&topicID=12. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "Energy". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm?pg=energy. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "What is the European Research Area?". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/index_en.html. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ Fusion for energy. "ITER fusion research project". Europa web portal. http://fusionforenergy.europa.eu/3_2_iter_en.htm. Retrieved 24 September 2007.
- ^ "Astronomical research collaborations". ESO. http://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/collaborations.html. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
- ^ LUZ figures all for 2004 "Data that can be accessed". Urban Audit. European Commission, Directorate-General Regional Policy, Unit D2 Urban Actions. http://www.urbanaudit.org/DataAccessed.aspx. Retrieved 31 July 2008.
Urban areas: all figures for 2005 (est.): "Pays, villes d'Europe et du monde". InsInstitut National de la Statistiqueet des Études Économiques. http://www.insee.fr/fr/ffc/chifcle_fiche.asp?ref_id=CMPTEF01103&tab_id=18. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
City limits figures:
London as at 1 July 2006: "Mid-2006 Population Estimates" (CSV). Office for National Statistics. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D9664.csv. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
Berlin as at September 2007: "Bevölkerung Berlin". Statistische Ämter des Bundes und der Länder (German statistics office). http://www.statistik-portal.de/Statistik-Portal/de_zs01_bl.asp. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
Madrid as at 1 january 2007: "Cifras de población". Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spanish national statistics office). http://www.ine.es/jaxi/tabla.do. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
Paris as at 1 July 2005: "Résultats des enquêtes annuelles de recensement de 2004 à 2007 pour les grandes villes". Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques (French national institute for statistics). http://www.insee.fr/fr/recensement/nouv_recens/resultats/grandes-villes.htm#P. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
Rome as at 31 December 2007 "Bilancio demografico Anno 2007". ISTAT (Italian national statistics office). http://demo.istat.it/bilmens2007gen/index02.html. Retrieved 6 February 2008. - ^ "Total population - At 1 January". Eurostat. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&language=en&pcode=tps00001. Retrieved 2009-07-24. "499794855 (provisional value)"
- ^ "A densely populated area". Telsat Guide. http://telsat.belspo.be/beo/en/profs/europe-population.asp?section=6.3.3. Retrieved 22 July 2007.
- ^ "The World According to GaWC". Loughborough University. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/citymap.html. Retrieved 29 June 2007.
- ^ Eurostat. "Indicators for larger urban zones 1999 - 2003". Europa web portal. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1996,45323734&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&screen=welcomeref&open=/&product=EU_MASTER_urban_audit&depth=2. Retrieved 25 January 2007.
- ^ European Commission (2006), "Europeans and their Languages" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer 243 (Europa (web portal)): pp. 141–143, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf, retrieved 19 November 2008
- ^ European Commission (2006), "Europeans and their Languages" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer 243 (Europa (web portal)): pp. 152–154, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf, retrieved 19 November 2008
- ^ EUR-Lex (12 December 2006). "Council Regulation (EC) No 1791/2006 of 20 November 2006". Official Journal of the European Union. Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:31958R0001:EN:NOT. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
- ^ "Languages in Europe - Official EU Languages". EUROPA web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/education/languages/languages-of-europe/doc135_en.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ^ "europarltv, official webtv of the European Parliament, is also available in all UE languages". http://www.europarltv.europa.eu/StartPage.aspx.
- ^ "Languages and Europe. FAQ: Is every document generated by the EU translated into all the official languages?". Europa web portal. 2004. http://europa.eu/languages/en/document/59#5. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
- ^ EUR-Lex (2004). "Consolidated version of the Treaty establishing the European Community, Articles 149 to 150". Official Journal of the European Union. Europa web portal. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/treaties/dat/12002E/htm/C_2002325EN.003301.html#anArt150. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
- ^ European Parliament (2004). "European Parliament Fact Sheets: 4.16.3. Language policy". Europa web portal. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/facts/4_16_3_en.htm. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
- ^ European Commission (2006). "Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Survey)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
European Commission (2006). "Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Executive Summary)" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_sum_en.pdf. Retrieved 3 February 2007. - ^ a b c European Commission (2004). "Many tongues, one family. Languages in the European Union" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/publications/booklets/move/45/en.pdf. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
- ^ Rory Watson (5 July 2008), "Welsh and Gaelic are official EU tongues", The Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article4272797.ece, retrieved 13 March 2009
- ^ "Mercator Newsletter - n. 29". Mercator Central. 2006. http://www.mercator-central.org/newsletter/newsletter29.htm#2. Retrieved 1 February 2007.
- ^ Ethnologue
- ^ European Commission (2005), "Social values, Science and Technology" (PDF), Special Eurobarometer 225 (Europa (web portal)): pp. 9, http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf, retrieved 19 May 2009
- ^ Castle, Stephen (21 March 2007). "EU celebrates 50th birthday-with a row about religion". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/eu-celebrates-its-50th-birthday--with-a-row-about-religion-440976.html. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
- ^ Miller, Tracy, ed (October 2009) (PDF). Mapping the Global Muslim Population: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World’s Muslim Population. Pew Research Center. pp. 31–32. http://pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/Muslimpopulation/Muslimpopulation.pdf. Retrieved 2009-11-11.
- ^ Jewish population figures may be unreliable. Sergio DellaPergola. "World Jewish Population (2002)". American Jewish Year Book. The Jewish Agency for Israel. http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demjpop.html. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
- ^ Ford, Peter (22 February 2005). "What place for God in Europe". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-02-21-god-europe_x.htm. Retrieved 24 July 2009.
- ^ a b Eurostat (2005). "Eurobarometer 225: Social values, Science & Technology" (PDF). Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
- ^ UK 2001 census
- ^ a b Bozoki, Andras. "Cultural Policy and Politics in the European Union" (PDF). IECOB, Institute for Central Eastern and Balkan Europe. http://137.204.115.130/activities/download/Bozoki/Cultural%20Policy%20and%20Politics%20in%20the%20European%20Union.pdf. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "European Culture Month". Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2008-02-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20080202062436/http://ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/ecocs/present_cap/retrospective_en.html. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
- ^ European Commission (5 July 2007). "Media programme". Europa web portal. http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/media/index_en.htm. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ "An Overture to the European Union Youth Orchestra". The European Youth Orchestra. http://www.euyo.org.uk/about/history.htm. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
- ^ European Commission. "European Capitals of Culture". Europa web portal. Archived from the original on 2007-12-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20071215093302/http://ec.europa.eu/culture/eac/ecocs/present_cap/present_cap_en.html. Retrieved 27 February 2008.
- ^ "Cultural heritage as a vehicle of cultural identity". Europa web portal. 3 May 2006. http://ec.europa.eu/culture/portal/activities/heritage/cultural_heritage_vehic_en.htm. Retrieved 4 March 2008.
- ^ For example: Hans-Gert Poettering (13 February 2007). "Priority is dialogue for partnership and tolerance". Inaugural speech by the new president of the European Parliament. European parliament. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?language=EN&type=IM-PRESS&reference=20070208IPR02888. Retrieved 27 February 2008. "The greatest success [. . .] has been overcoming the division of Europe. But shared values have prevailed. [. . .] Europeans should be proud of what they have achieved by their labours over the centuries in terms of values, freedom, law and democracy. It has been a long haul. We know that our European roots lie in Greek philosophy, Roman law, the Judeo-Christian heritage, the Enlightenment – in other words, our shared European culture. But there have also been tragic European civil wars, and in the 20th century the totalitarian ideologies, with their disdain for humanity, and then, in 1945, the courage of the founding fathers in following the path of forgiveness and reconciliation, in building a new, better, more peaceful, shared Europe."
- ^ "ÉduSCOL - Bilateral cooperation/Manuel d'histoire franco-allemand". Eduscol.education.fr. 2003-01-21. http://eduscol.education.fr/D0156EN/all-manuel-franco-allemand.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ^ Fordyce, Tom (11 July 2007). "10 years since Bosman". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/4528732.stm. Retrieved 13 July 2007.
- ^ "IOC, FIFA presidents welcomes new EU treaty, call it breakthrough to give sports more power". International Herald Tribune. 19 October 2007. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/19/sports/EU-SPT-OLY-EU-Treaty.php. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
- ^ "Statement of European team sports" (PDF). UEFA.com. 19 October 2007. http://www.uefa.com/multimediafiles/download/uefa/keytopics/560675_download.pdf. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
- ^ "UEFA". UEFA.com. 19 October 2007. http://www.uefa.com/. Retrieved 21 October 2007.
Further reading
- Craig, Paul; de Búrca, Gráinne (2007). EU Law, Text, Cases and Materials (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927389-8.
- Dinan, Desmond (2004). Europe Recast: A History of European Union. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-98734-6.
- Hix, Simon (2005). The Political System of the European Union. The European Union Series (2nd ed.). Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 0-333-96182-X.
- ed. by John Peterson ... (2006). Peterson, John; Shackleton, Michael. eds. The Institutions of the European Union (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-870052-0.
- Podmore, Will & Nicholls, Doug (2006), The EU: bad for Britain - a trade union view. Bread Books, ISBN 0-942112-5-1.
- Rifkin, Jeremy (2004). The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream. Jeremy P. Tarcher. ISBN 978-1-58542-345-3.
- Smith, Charles (2007). International Trade and Globalisation, 3rd edition. Stocksfield: Anforme. ISBN 1-905504-10-1.
- Steiner, Josephine; Woods, Lorna; Twigg-Flesner, Christian (2006). EU Law (9th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927959-3.
- Story, Christopher (2002). The European Union Collective: Enemy of its member states. Edward Harle. ISBN 1-899798-01-3.
External links
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Mentioned in
- EU (abbreviation)
- EN
- traditional method (wine-related term)
- European Economic Area
- European Geostationary Navigation Overlay System (navigation)
- European Monetary Union
- Eurocrat (administrative official at the headquarters)
- International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) (in accounting)
- Benelux
- CAP
- EMU (abbreviation)
- euro
- Eastern Bloc (Politics)
- common ground (Idiom)
