Portal:European Union

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The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The Union has a total area of 4,233,255 km² (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of over 449 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

Containing 5.8% of the world population in 2020, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around US$16.6 trillion in 2022, constituting approximately one sixth of global nominal GDP. Additionally, all EU states except Bulgaria have a very high Human Development Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states 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. The eurozone is a group composed of the 20 EU member states that have fully implemented the economic and monetary union and use the euro currency. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the union has developed a role in external relations and defence. It maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7 and the G20. Due to its global influence, the European Union has been described by some scholars as an emerging superpower.

In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The United Kingdom became the only member state to leave the EU, in 2020; ten countries are aspiring or negotiating to join it. (Full article...)

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The European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975, is an inter-governmental organization dedicated to the exploration of space, currently with 20 member states. Its headquarters are in Paris, France. ESA has a staff of about 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4 billion in 2013.

ESA's spaceport is the Centre Spatial Guyanais (Guyana Space Centre) in Kourou, French Guiana, a site chosen because it is close to the equator from which commercially important orbits are easier to access. During the 1990s ESA gained the position of market leader in commercial space launches and in recent years ESA has established itself as a major player in space exploration.

ESA science missions are based at ESTEC in Noordwijk, Netherlands, Earth Observation missions at ESRIN in Frascati, Italy, ESA Mission Control (ESOC) is in Darmstadt, Germany, and the European Astronaut Centre (PACI), that trains astronauts for future missions is situated in Cologne, Germany.

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Helsinki Cathedral

Photograph credit: Joaquim Alves Gaspar

Helsinki Cathedral is an Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki, located in the centre of Helsinki, Finland. Designed by Carl Ludvig Engel to form the focal point of Senate Square, it was built from 1830 to 1852 in the Neoclassical style. The church's plan forms a Greek cross (a square centre and four equilateral arms), symmetrical in each of the four cardinal directions. The cathedral is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Helsinki, with more than half a million visitors in 2018.

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Did you know?

...that France possesses the largest exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the world?

...that Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City all mint their own euro coins, with their own national symbols on the back?

...that Turkey's two most famous weightlifters, Naim Suleymanoglu and Halil Mutlu are only two of four weightlifters in the world to have won 3 gold medals in 3 olympics?

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Tallinn is the capital city and main seaport of Estonia. It is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, in north central Estonia., 80 kilometres south of Helsinki. Tallinn's population is registered at 399,180 (as of November 2006). In 1154 Tallinn was marked on the world map of the Arab cartographer al-Idrisi.

As an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219. According to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, of all EU member states' capital cities, Tallinn has the largest number of non-EU nationals: 27.8% of its population are not EU citizens.

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General images

The following are images from various European Union-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, during the Congress of Europe (9 May 1948) (from History of the European Union)
Image 21922 European flag of the Paneuropean Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 3Population pyramid of the EU 27 in 2023 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 4José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission (2004-2014) (from History of the European Union)
Image 5Logo of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 6The Schuman Parade in Warsaw has been organised by the Schuman Foundation since 1999 (2008 photograph). (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 7Political groups of the European Parliament in the Louise Weiss building after the election 2024:
  Group of the European People's Party (EPP)
  Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)
  Patriots for Europe (PfE)
  European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)
  Renew Europe (Renew)
  The Greens–European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA)
  The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL (The Left)
  Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN)
  Non-Inscrits (NI)
  Vacant (1)
(from Politics of the European Union)
Image 8Logo of the Court of Justice of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 9Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the European Union in 2019 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 10Boris Johnson Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022 (from History of the European Union)
Image 11Signatories of the 2007 declaration in dark blue. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 12Logo of the European Parliament (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 13Aristide Briand (from History of the European Union)
Image 14Logo of the European Commission (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 15Logo of the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 16Ursula von der Leyen President of the European Commission
(since 1 December 2019) (from History of the European Union)
Image 17Flag of the Western Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 18The fertility rate in the EU was 1.46 in 2022 (Kindergarten in France). (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 19The ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 20A cartogram depicting the population distribution between old EU-27 member states in 2008 (including the UK and excluding Croatia). 57.8% of all citizens of the EU live in the four largest member states: Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 21A piece from the original manuscript. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 22Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein and Antonio Segni, signing the European customs union and Euratom in Rome in 1957 (from History of the European Union)
Image 23The Frankish Empire at its greatest extent, ca. 814 AD (from History of the European Union)
Image 24After 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). (from History of the European Union)
Image 25Organigram of the political system. The seven organs of the Union are in blue, national / intergovernmental elements in orange. (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 26Newest state in yellow (from History of the European Union)
Image 27The European Coal and Steel Community's flag. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 28Coins and banknotes of the Euro, the single-currency introduced from 1999 (from History of the European Union)
Image 29The Euro symbol shown as a sculpture outside the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 30Logo of the European Court of Auditors (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 31Winston Churchill (right, during the Atlantic Conference), consistent advocate of continential European integration, later along with his son-in-law Duncan Sandys (from History of the European Union)
Image 32Elaboration by sex (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 33The flag of Europe, emblem of both the Council of Europe and the European Union. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 34Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570 (from History of the European Union)
Image 35The population density of the EU is 106 people per km². N.B. the light in the North Sea is from oil platforms. (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 36Hearing of Josep Borrell, High Representative Vice President (from Politics of the European Union)