European Union
The European Union (EU) is an international organization comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies.
Originally confined to western Europe, the EU has expanded to include several central and eastern European countries. The EU’s members are 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. The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force on November 1, 1993.[1] At present there are three official candidate countries — Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey.[2]
The European Union covers more than 4 million km², less than half the size of the United States, but its population is over 50% larger. In fact, its population is the world’s third largest after China and India[3], with over 500 million inhabitants.[4]
Currently, 16 of the members of EU are part of the eurozone and share the euro currency.[5]
References
- ↑ European Union (EU). (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 02, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: [1].
- ↑ The European Commission. "EUROPA - Key facts and figures about Europe and the Europeans - The candidate countries ", referenced 2010-12-02.
- ↑ The European Commission. "EUROPA - Key facts and figures about Europe and the Europeans - Size and population", referenced 2010-12-02.
- ↑ "First demographic estimates for 2009". 11 December 2009. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-QA-09-047/EN/KS-QA-09-047-EN.PDF. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
- ↑ European Commission. "The euro", Economic and Financial Affairs, referenced 2010-09-29.
External links
- European Union on Wikipedia
- EUROPA – The official website of the European Union
- European Union at the CIA World Factbook
- EU VERSUS USA (pdf) by Fredrik Bergström & Robert Gidehag, June 2004
- The horrible truth starts to dawn on Europe's leaders by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, November 2010