European Union The European Union or the EU is an intergovernmental and supranational union of 25 European countries, known as member states. states. The European Union was established under that name in 1992. The European Union's activities cover all areas of public policy, from health and economic policy to foreign affairs and defence. defence. The most important EU institutions are the Council of the European Union, Union, the European Commission, Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice. European Union made Agenda 2010 which aims at making "the EU the world's most dynamic and competitive economy" by the 2010 deadline. According to Euronews this is to be achieved by b y transforming Europe into the world's largest knowledge based economy by 2010. 2010. Following the catastrophes of the First World War and War and the Second World War , the impetus for the founding of (what was later to become) the European Union Un ion greatly increased, driven by the determination to rebuild Europe and to eliminate the possibility p ossibility of another war. This sentiment eventually led to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community by (West) Germany, Germany, France, Italy and the Benelux countries. The first full customs union was originally known as the European Economic Community (informally called the Common Market in the UK). This later changed to the European Community which is now the "first pillar" of the European Union. The EU has evolved from a trade body into an economic and political partnership.
The European Union has 25 member states, an area of 3,892,685 km² and approximately 460 million EU citizens as of December 2004. If it were a country, it would be the seventh largest in the world by area and the third largest by largest by population after China after China and India. India. The European Union has land borders with 20 nations and sea borders with 31. In more recent times, the European Union has been extending its influence to the east. It has accepted several new members that were previously behind the Iron Curtain. The EU has no official capital and its institutions are divided between several cities: • • • •
Brussels, Brussels, Belgium - Considered the de facto capital of the EU Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France Luxembourg City, City, Luxembourg Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany
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The Hague, The Netherlands
Many of the policies of the EU relate in one way or another to the development and maintenance of an effective single market. Significant efforts have been made to create harmonised standards – which are designed to bring economic benefits through creating larger, more efficient markets. The power of the single market reaches beyond the EU borders, because to sell within the EU, it is beneficial to conform to its standards. Once a non-member country's factories, farmers and merchants conform to EU standards, much of the cost of joining the union has already been sunk. At that point, harmonising domestic laws in order to become a full member is relatively painless, and may create more wealth through eliminating the customs costs.
