Portal:European Union

Introduction Portal subpages Main page Institutions Competences Structural evolution Member states   Welcome to the European Union Portal! The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. Its members have a combined area of 4,233,255.3 km2 (1,634,469.0 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 447 million. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and home affairs; and maintain common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Passport controls have been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area. A monetary union was established in 1999, coming into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity (without precedent or comparison). The EU and European citizenship were established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993. The EU traces its origins to the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), established, respectively, by the 1951 Treaty of Paris and 1957 Treaty of Rome. The original members of what came to be known as the European Communities were the Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. The Communities and their successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to their remit. The United Kingdom became the first member state to leave the EU on 31 January 2020. Before this, three territories of member states had left the EU or its forerunners. The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009. (Full article...) Selected article Hungary /ˈhʌŋɡəri/ (listen) (Hungarian: Magyarország [ˈmɒɟɒrorsaːɡ] (listen)), officially the Republic of Hungary (Hungarian: Magyar Köztársaság listen , literally "Hungarian Republic"), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Pannonian Basin and it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The capital and largest city is Budapest. Hungary is a member of the European Union, NATO, the OECD, the Visegrád Group, and is a Schengen state. The official language is Hungarian, which is part of the Uralic family and is the most widely spoken non-Indo-European language in Europe. Selected picture Photo credit: User:Diliff Windsor Castle Upper Ward Quadrangle. Did you know? ...that within the Eurozone the European Central Bank has the exclusive authority to set monetary policy? ...that Greenland and United Kingdom are the only countries to ever leave the European Union? Selected city Lisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is the seat of the district of Lisbon and capital of Região Lisboa (Lisbon Region). Lisbon municipality has a population of 564,477, and the Lisbon Metropolitan Area in total has around 2,800,000 inhabitants, the largest urban aglomeration of Portugal. Lisbon Region is the wealthiest region in Portugal and it is well above the European Union's per capita GDP average. Lisbon hosts two important European Union agencies namely, the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA). The CPLP (Community of Portuguese Language Countries), is also headquartered in Lisbon. General images The following are images from various European Union-related articles on Wikipedia. The ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union A cartogram depicting the population distribution between old EU-27 member states (including the UK and excluding Croatia). 58% of all citizens of the EU live in the four largest member states: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. After two devastating world wars, the political climate favoured an international unity that could preserve peace in Europe effectively. (Hamburg, after a massive Allied bombing in 1943 in the picture) Map showing the population density by NUTS3 region, 2017, before Brexit Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein and Antonio Segni, signing the European customs union and Euratom in Rome in 1957 The Schuman Parade in Warsaw has been organised by the Schuman Foundation since 1999 (2008 photograph). Hearing of Josep Borrell, High Representative Vice President Signatories of the declaration in dark blue. The fertility rate in the EU was 1.6 in 2014 (Kindergarten in France). Newest state in yellow. The Euro symbol shown as a sculpture outside the European Central Bank A piece from the original manuscript. Political groups of the European Parliament in the Louise Weiss building after the election 2014:   Group of the European People's Party (EPP)   Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)   Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE)   European Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)   European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL)   European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)   Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD)   Non-Inscrits (NI) Otto von Habsburg, who played a leading role in the collapse of the Iron Curtain and communism. The flag of Europe, emblem of both the Council of Europe and the European Union. The population density of the EU is 117 people per km2. Coins and banknotes of the Euro, the single-currency introduced from 1999 Organigram of the political system. The seven organs of the Union are in blue, national / intergovernmental elements in orange. Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570. The European Coal and Steel Community's flag. Ex-President Barroso. 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