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User:Tom29739/The EU

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The European Union (EU) is a union of countries, located mostly in Europe.

European Union
Flag of European Union
Motto: United in diversity
Anthem: Ode to Joy
Location of European Union
CapitalBrussels
Largest cityParis and London
Internet TLD.eu
Website
europa.eu
The European Union in the World.
The European Union in the World.

Evolution

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The EU has not always been the European Union. It has had several incarnations, shown in the diagram below:Since the end of World War II, sovereign European countries have entered into treaties and thereby co-operated and harmonised policies (or pooled sovereignty) in an increasing number of areas, in the European integration project or the construction of Europe (French: la construction européenne). The following timeline outlines the legal inception of the European Union (EU)—the principal framework for this unification. The EU inherited many of its present responsibilities from the European Communities (EC), which were founded in the 1950s in the spirit of the Schuman Declaration.

Legend:
  S: signing
  F: entry into force
  T: termination
  E: expiry
    de facto supersession
  Rel. w/ EC/EU framework:
   de facto inside
   outside
                  European Union (EU) [Cont.]  
European Communities (EC) (Pillar I)
European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom) [Cont.]      
/ / / European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC)  
(Distr. of competences)
    European Economic Community (EEC)    
            Schengen Rules European Community (EC)
'TREVI' Justice and Home Affairs (JHA, pillar II)  
  / North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) [Cont.] Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC, pillar II)

Anglo-French alliance
[Defence arm handed to NATO] European Political Co-operation (EPC)   Common Foreign and Security Policy
(CFSP, pillar III)
Western Union (WU) / Western European Union (WEU) [Tasks defined following the WEU's 1984 reactivation handed to the EU]
     
[Social, cultural tasks handed to CoE] [Cont.]                
      Council of Europe (CoE)
Entente Cordiale
S: 8 April 1904
Dunkirk Treaty[i]
S: 4 March 1947
F: 8 September 1947
E: 8 September 1997
Brussels Treaty[i]
S: 17 March 1948
F: 25 August 1948
T: 30 June 2011
London and Washington treaties[i]
S: 5 May/4 April 1949
F: 3 August/24 August 1949
Paris treaties: ECSC and EDC[ii]
S: 18 April 1951/27 May 1952
F: 23 July 1952/—
E: 23 July 2002/—
Rome treaties: EEC and EAEC
S: 25 March 1957
F: 1 January 1958
WEU-CoE agreement[i]
S: 21 October 1959
F: 1 January 1960
Brussels (Merger) Treaty[iii]
S: 8 April 1965
F: 1 July 1967
Davignon report
S: 27 October 1970
Single European Act (SEA)
S: 17/28 February 1986
F: 1 July 1987
Schengen Treaty and Convention
S: 14 June 1985/19 June 1990
F: 26 March 1995
Maastricht Treaty[iv][v]
S: 7 February 1992
F: 1 November 1993
Amsterdam Treaty
S: 2 October 1997
F: 1 May 1999
Nice Treaty
S: 26 February 2001
F: 1 February 2003
Lisbon Treaty[vi]
S: 13 December 2007
F: 1 December 2009


  1. ^ a b c d e Although not EU treaties per se, these treaties affected the development of the EU defence arm, a main part of the CFSP. The Franco-British alliance established by the Dunkirk Treaty was de facto superseded by WU. The CFSP pillar was bolstered by some of the security structures that had been established within the remit of the 1955 Modified Brussels Treaty (MBT). The Brussels Treaty was terminated in 2011, consequently dissolving the WEU, as the mutual defence clause that the Lisbon Treaty provided for EU was considered to render the WEU superfluous. The EU thus de facto superseded the WEU.
  2. ^ Plans to establish a European Political Community (EPC) were shelved following the French failure to ratify the Treaty establishing the European Defence Community (EDC). The EPC would have combined the ECSC and the EDC.
  3. ^ The European Communities obtained common institutions and a shared legal personality (i.e. ability to e.g. sign treaties in their own right).
  4. ^ The treaties of Maastricht and Rome form the EU's legal basis, and are also referred to as the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), respectively. They are amended by secondary treaties.
  5. ^ Between the EU's founding in 1993 and consolidation in 2009, the union consisted of three pillars, the first of which were the European Communities. The other two pillars consisted of additional areas of cooperation that had been added to the EU's remit.
  6. ^ The consolidation meant that the EU inherited the European Communities' legal personality and that the pillar system was abolished, resulting in the EU framework as such covering all policy areas. Executive/legislative power in each area was instead determined by a distribution of competencies between EU institutions and member states. This distribution, as well as treaty provisions for policy areas in which unanimity is required and qualified majority voting is possible, reflects the depth of EU integration as well as the EU's partly supranational and partly intergovernmental nature.

How the EU benefits the UK

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The EU benefits the UK because we can trade with Europe and the rest of the World easily. It allows free movement of citizens of the EU in and out of the UK and other EU countries.

Disadvantages of the EU

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The EU sets limits on how many people a member state must take per year. This means that the UK has to take in benefit-scrounging, good for nothing scum migrants that take all the jobs from native-born British people and take all the money out of the national pot for themselves.

Member states of the EU

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The following countries are member states of the EU:

Name Capital Accession Population Area (km2)
 Austria Vienna 199501011 January 1995 8,584,926 83,855
 Belgium Brussels 19570325Founder 11,258,434 30,528
 Bulgaria Sofia 200701011 January 2007 7,202,198 110,994
 Croatia Zagreb 201307011 July 2013 4,225,316 56,594
 Cyprus Nicosia 200405011 May 2004 847,008 9,251
 Czech Republic Prague 200405011 May 2004 10,538,275 78,866
 Denmark Copenhagen 197301011 January 1973 5,659,715 43,075
 Estonia Tallinn 200405011 May 2004 1,313,271 45,227
 Finland Helsinki 199501011 January 1995 5,471,753 338,424
 France Paris 19570325Founder 66,352,469 640,679
 Germany Berlin 19570325Founder 81,174,000 357,021
 Greece Athens 198101011 January 1981 10,812,467 131,990
 Hungary Budapest 200401011 May 2004 9,849,000 93,030
 Ireland Dublin 197301011 January 1973 4,625,885 70,273
 Italy Rome 19570325Founder 60,795,612 301,338
 Latvia Riga 200405011 May 2004 1,986,096 64,589
 Lithuania Vilnius 200405011 May 2004 2,921,262 65,200
 Luxembourg Luxembourg City 19570325Founder 562,958 2,586
 Malta Valletta 200405011 May 2004 429,344 316
 Netherlands Amsterdam 19570325Founder 16,900,726 41,543
 Poland Warsaw 200405011 May 2004 38,005,614 312,685
 Portugal Lisbon 198601011 January 1986 10,374,822 92,390
 Romania Bucharest 200701011 January 2007 19,861,408 238,391
 Slovakia Bratislava 200405011 May 2004 5,421,349 49,035
 Slovenia Ljubljana 200405011 May 2004 2,062,874 20,273
 Spain Madrid 198601011 January 1986 46,439,864 504,030
 Sweden Stockholm 199501011 January 1995 9,747,355 449,964
 United Kingdom London 197301011 January 1973 64,767,115 243,610

Culture

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This is a selection of pictures of the culture of the EU: