Description[]
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of nearly 447 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity (without precedent or comparison) combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.
Containing 5.8 per cent of the world population in 2020, the EU generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$16.6 trillion in 2022, constituting approximately one sixth of global nominal GDP and the third-biggest global economy after the United States and China. Additionally, all EU states except Bulgaria have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and home affairs; and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Passport controls have been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area. The eurozone is a group composed of the 20 EU member states that have fully implemented the economic and monetary union and use the euro currency. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the union has developed a role in external relations and defence. It maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7 and the G20. Due to its global influence, the European Union has been described by some scholars as an emerging superpower.
History[]
After the First World War, but particularly with Second World War, internationalism was gaining, with the creation of the Bretton Woods System in 1944, the United Nations in 1945 and the French Union (1946–1958), the latter directing decolonization by possibly integrating its colonies into a European community. In this light European integration was seen, already during the war, as an antidote to the extreme nationalism which had devastated parts of the continent.
The Ventotene prison Manifesto of 1941 by Altiero Spinelli propagated European integration through the Italian Resistance and after 1943 through the European Federalist Movement. Winston Churchill called in 1943 for a post-war "Council of Europe" and on 19 September 1946, at the University of Zürich, coincidentally parallel to the Hertenstein Congress of the Union of European Federalists, for a United States of Europe. Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, who successfully established during the interwar period the oldest organization for European integration, the Paneuropean Union, founded in June 1947 the European Parliamentary Union (EPU).
Towards the end of World War II, the Three Allied Powers discussed during the Tehran Conference and the ensuing 1943 Moscow Conference the plans to establish joint institutions. This led to a decision at the Yalta Conference in 1944 to include Free France as the Fourth Allied Power and to form a European Advisory Commission, later replaced by the Council of Foreign Ministers and the Allied Control Council, following the German surrender and the Potsdam Agreement in 1945.
Members[]
| Country | Date joined |
|---|---|
| Belgium | 1958 |
| France | 1958 |
| Austria | 1995 |
| Bulgaria | 2007 |
| Croatia | 2013 |
| Cyprus | 2004 |
| Czechia | 2004 |
| Denmark | 1973 |
| Estonia | 2004 |
| Finland | 1995 |
| Germany | 1958 |
| Greece | 1981 |
| Hungary | 2004 |
| Ireland | 1973 |
| Italy | 1958 |
| Latvia | 2004 |
| Lithuania | 2004 |
| Luxembourg | 1958 |
| Malta | 2004 |
| Netherlands | 1958 |
| Poland | 2004 |
| Portugal | 1986 |
| Romania | 2007 |
| Slovakia | 2004 |
| Slovenia | 2004 |
| Spain | 1986 |
| Sweden | 1995 |
| Official Website | |
Sources[]
Https://european-union.europa.eu/principles-countries-history/country-profiles_en?page=1