The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states A Member State of the European Union is any one of the 27 sovereign states that have acceded to the European Union since its de facto inception in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC). From an original membership of six states, there have been six successive enlargements, the largest occurring on 1 May 2004, when ten states joined,^[6] located primarily in Europe Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains (or the Kuma-Manych Depression), and the Black Sea to the southeast. Europe is bordered. Committed to regional integration European integration is the process of political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. In the present day, European Integration is primarily achieved through the European Union and the Council of Europe, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht The Maastricht Treaty was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, the Netherlands after final negotiations on 9 December 1991 between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993 during the Delors Commission. It created the European Union and led to the creation of the euro. The Maastricht Treaty has been on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the European Economic Community The European Economic Community (also referred to as simply the European Community, or the Common Market in the English-speaking world) was an international organisation that existed between 1958 and 1993 which was created to bring about economic integration (including a single market) between Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the.^[7] With over 500 million citizens^[8], the EU generates an estimated 30% share (US$ The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is normally abbreviated as the dollar sign, $, or as USD or US$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and from others that use the $ symbol. It is divided into 100 cents (200 half-cents prior to 1857)18.4 trillion in 2008) of the nominal gross world product This article includes a list of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product , the market value of all final goods and services from a nation in a given year. The GDP dollar estimates presented here are calculated at market or government official exchange rates and about 22% (US$15.2 trillion in 2008) of the PPP gross world product There are three lists of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year). The GDP dollar estimates given on this page are derived from purchasing power parity (PPP) calculations.^[9]

The EU has developed a single market A common market is a type of trade bloc which is composed of a customs union with common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement of the factors of production and of enterprise. The goal is that the movement of capital, labour, goods, and services between the members is as easy as within them. This is the fourth stage of economic through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states, ensuring the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital In European Union law, the Four Freedoms is a common term for a set of treaty provisions, secondary legislation and court decisions, protecting the ability of goods, capital, services, people and labour to move freely within the internal market of the European Union. More precisely, they are:.^[10] It maintains common policies on trade,^[11] agriculture The Common Agricultural Policy is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It represents 48% of the EU's budget, €49.8 billion in 2006 (up from €48.5 billion in 2005), fisheries The Common Fisheries Policy is the fisheries policy of the European Union. It sets quotas for which member states are allowed to catch what amounts of each type of fish, as well as encouraging the fishing industry by various market interventions. In 2004 it had a budget of €931 million, approximately 0.75% of the EU budget^[12] and regional development The Regional policy of the European Union is a policy with the stated aim of improving the economic well-being of certain regions in the EU. Around one third of the EU's budget is devoted to this policy, the aim of which has been stated to be to remove the disparities in wealth across the EU, restructure declining industrial areas and to diversify.^[13] Sixteen member states have adopted a common currency, the euro The euro is the official currency of the European Union, and is currently in use in 16 of the 27 Member States. The states, known collectively as the Eurozone, are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The currency is also used in a, constituting the Eurozone The eurozone ( pronunciation ), officially the euro area, is an economic and monetary union (EMU) of 16 European Union (EU) member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. It currently consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal,. The EU has developed a limited role in foreign policy, having representation at the WTO The World Trade Organization is an international organization designed by its founders to supervise and liberalize international capital trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1947. The World Trade Organization, G8 The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for governments of the six richest countries in the world: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1976, Canada joined the group (thus creating the G7). In becoming the G8, the group added Russia in 1997. In addition, the European Union is represented, G20 The Group of Twenty Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 countries, plus the European Union (EU). It has also met three times at heads-of-government level: Washington, D.C. in November 2008, London in April 2009 and Pittsburgh in September 2009. The next 2010 and at the UN The United Nations Organization or simply United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace. The UN was founded in 1945 after World War II to replace the League of. It enacts legislation in justice and home affairs An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs. In some countries, matters relating to the maintenance of law and order and the administration of justice are the responsibility of a, including the abolition of passport controls by the Schengen agreement between 22 EU and 3 non-EU states The Schengen Area is a group of twenty-five European countries which have abolished all border controls between each other. It originates from the eponymous agreement signed in the Luxembourgish town of Schengen in 1985, which has since been absorbed into the European Union. All EU members except Ireland and the United Kingdom are required to.^[14]

As an international organisation An international organization is an organization with an international membership, scope, or presence. There are two main types:, the EU operates through a hybrid system of supranationalism Supranationalism is a method of decision-making in multi-national political communities, wherein power is transferred or delegated to an authority by governments of member states. The authority, subject to supranational democratic institutions and with a legal procedure can therefore institute a supranational rule of law above the constituent and intergovernmentalism It is usually said that intergovernmentalism refers to the decision-making methods in international organisations, where power is possessed by the member states and decisions are often but not always made by unanimity. Independent appointees of the governments or elected representatives have solely advisory or implementational functions.^[15][16][17] 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 of the EU The European Union is governed by seven institutions. Article 13 of Treaty on European Union lists them in the following order: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union (the Council); the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the Court of Auditors include the European Commission The European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union, the Council of the European Union The Council of the European Union is the principal decision-making institution of the European Union . It is often informally called the Council of Ministers or just the Council, the name used in the treaties; it is also called Consilium as a Latin-language compromise. This Council should not be confused with the European Council (an assembly of, the European Council The Treaty on European Union lists the European Council as the second institution of the European Union. It comprises the heads of state or government of the Union's member states, along with its President and the President of the Commission. The High Representative takes part in its meetings, which are chaired by its President: currently Herman, the Court of Justice of the European Union The Court of Justice of the European Union is one of the seven institutions of the European Union . As of December 2009, the whole court system of the European Union is known as the Court of Justice of the European Union. It has its seat in Luxembourg, and the European Central Bank The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union (EU) tasked with administrating the monetary policy of the 16 EU member states taking part in the Eurozone. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. The. The European Parliament The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU). Together with the Council of the European Union (the Council), it forms the bicameral legislative branch of the EU's institutions and has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world. The Parliament and Council form the is elected every five years by member states' citizens, to whom the citizenship of the European Union Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. It exists alongside national citizenship and provides additional rights to nationals of Member States of the European Union is guaranteed.

The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community The European Coal and Steel Community was a six-nation international organisation serving to unify Western Europe during the Cold War and create the foundation for the modern-day developments of the European Union. The ECSC was the first organisation to be based on the principles of supranationalism formed among six countries The Inner Six, or simply The Six, were the six founding member-states of the European Communities. This was in contrast to the outer seven who formed the European Free Trade Association rather than be involved in supranational European integration in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome The Treaties of Rome are two of the treaties of the European Union signed on 25 March 1957. Both treaties were signed by The Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany formed in 1957 by the same states. Since then, the EU has grown in size through enlargement Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who founded the European Coal and Steel Community (the EU's predecessor) in 1952. Since then, the EU's membership has grown to twenty-seven with the most recent expansion to Bulgaria, and in power through the addition of policy areas to its remit.

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• European Union Customs Union
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