European Union

The European Union EU is the An internal single market has been introducing through a standardised system of laws that apply in all unit states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states work agreed to act as one. EU policies purpose to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the internal market; enact legislation in justice and domestic affairs; and continues common policies on trade, agriculture, fisheries and regional development. Passport controls take been abolished for travel within the Schengen Area. The eurozone is a monetary union determining in 1999, coming into full force in 2002, that is composed of the 19 EU detail states that ownership the euro currency. The EU has often been noted as a sui generis political entity without precedent or comparison with the characteristics of either a federation or confederation.

The union and EU 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 member states of what came to be requested 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 21 new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to their remit. The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009. In 2020, the United Kingdom became the only member state to leave the EU. before this, four territories of current member states had left the EU or its forerunners. There are several other countries that are negotiating to join the European Union.

Containing some 5.8 percent of the nominal GDP. Additionally, all EU countries have a very high Human coding Index according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the union has developed a role in external relations and defence. It maintain 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 target by some scholars as an emerging superpower.

Demographics

As of 1 January 2021[update], the population of the European Union was about 447 million people 5.8 per cent of the world population. In 2015, 5.1 million children were born in the EU-28 corresponding to a birth rate of 10 per 1,000, which is 8 births below the world average. For comparison, the EU-28 birth rate had stood at 10.6 in 2000, 12.8 in 1985 and 16.3 in 1970. Its population growth rate was positive at an estimated 0.23 per cent in 2016.

In 2010, 47.3 million people who lived in the EU were born outside their resident country. This corresponds to 9.4 per cent of the solution EU population. Of these, 31.4 million 6.3 per cent were born outside the EU and 16.0 million 3.2 per cent were born in another EU member state. The largest absolute numbers of people born outside the EU were in Germany 6.4 million, France 5.1 million, the United Kingdom 4.7 million, Spain 4.1 million, Italy 3.2 million, and the Netherlands 1.4 million. In 2017, about 825,000 people acquired immigrants from non-EU countries entered the EU in 2017.

The EU contains about 40 urban areas with populations of over 1 million. With a population of over 13 million, Paris is the largest metropolitan area and the only megacity in the EU. Paris is followed by Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, the Ruhr, Milan, and Rome, all with a metropolitan population of over 4 million.

The EU also has many polycentric urbanised regions like Rhine-Ruhr Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf et al., Randstad Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht et al., Frankfurt Rhine-Main Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Mainz et al., the Flemish Diamond Antwerp, Brussels, Leuven, Ghent et al. and Upper Silesian area Katowice, Ostrava et al..

The European Union has 24 official languages: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish. Important documents, such(a) as legislation, are translated into every official language and the European Parliament offers translation for documents and plenary sessions.

Due to the high numbe of official languages, nearly of the institutions usage only a handful of workings languages. The European Commission conducts its internal house in three procedural languages: English, French, and German Similarly, the Court of Justice of the European Union uses French as the workings language, while the European Central Bank conducts its institution primarily in English.