European Union

THE EUROPEAN UNION

• The European Union (EU) is an organisation of European countries that was formed to increase economic integration and to strengthen political cooperation among its members.

• Nowadays, there are 27 member countries. Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia. (The UK withdrew in 2020.)

• The European Union headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.

• The EU was officially formed on November 1, 1993, but even before, there were several organisations that led to the creation of EU.

Symbols

• In the 1986 the EU started using the flag that has become its emblem. There are 12 golden stars, on a background of blue sky. The stars are in a circle and they represent the union of people in Europe.

• The EU anthem is the final part of the Ode to Joy by Beethoven.

History

• In 1951 the European Coal and Steel Community was established between six countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) to cooperate on coal and steel production. The community was renamed in 1967, to the European Community (EC). More and more countries entered the union successively.

• (At the end of the 80s, the members were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. In 1992 the governments of the 12 member states signed the treaty on the EU, called the Maastricht Treaty. It transformed the EC into the EU on January 1, 1993.

• In 1995 Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU.

• In May 2004 ten more countries entered, too – bringing the number of the member countries to 25. The countries were: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

• On January 1, 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU, the total number of EU members increased to 27.

The main goals

• The main goal of the EU is to increase the cooperation among the member states in economics, trade, social issues, foreign policy, security and defence, and judicial power.

• The countries also intended to open their borders, to make free movement of goods, workers, services and capital

• European citizens have greater freedom to live, work and study in any of the member states.

Euro

• Another goal was to set up the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) to introduce the single currency, the EURO, for EU members.

• Euro is issued by the European Central Bank (located in Frankfurt, Germany) that has total control over all EU monetary policies.

• The euro is divided into 100 cents. Euro notes are of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 euros. Coins issued are in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 cents, and 1 and 2 euros. Although banknotes are identical in all countries, coins have a unified design on one side and a national design on the reverse.

• The benefits of the euro currency are: citizens can travel more easily within the euro area, they don’t have to exchange money, people can compare prices more easily, euro is an international currency so also widely accepted