Members

THE EUROPEAN
UNION
Eu and eurozone
EU members only
Denm ark
Netherland s
United
Kingdom
Luxembourg
Portugal
Spain
Germany
Czech Republic
Austria Hungary
Romania
•Croatia
Slovenia Bulgaria
Malta

The European Union (EU) is a politico-economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe

Austria Italy Belgium Latvia Bulgaria Lithuania Croatia Luxembourg Cyprus Malta Czech Republic Netherlands Denmark Poland Estonia Portugal Finland Romania France Slovakia Germany Slovenia Greece Spain Hungary Sweden Ireland
United Kingdom, Turkey, Russia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland not member of EU

Principle

Maastricht Treaty It is the treaty that was responsible for the creation of European Union (a group of countries having a common economic and monetary union).

Four freedoms of movement –

goods, services, capital and people, apart from special circumstances.

The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardized system of laws that apply in all member states.

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.

A monetary union was established and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.

The EU operates through a hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making.

EU Bodies

The seven principal decision-making bodies—known as the institutions of the European Union—are
the European Council, the European Council of Ministers, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the European Court of Auditors.

European Parliament members, elected directly f rom the people of the EU member countries
European Council: All heads of Govt of EU member countries that sets the political directions of EU
President of European council is elected by members of the council and president represents the EU to the outside world
The European Commission is the EU's politically independent executive arm. It is alone responsible for drawing up proposals for new European legislation, and it implements the decisions of the European Parliament and the Council of the EU.

Legislature - One elected by European people - European Parliament , other by Govts of European states - Council of Ministers(one minister per dept per country)
Executive- one appointed by European parliament- European Commission, other by heads of European states- European Council
Judiciary - European Court of Justice
Other organs - European Central Bank, European Court of Auditors

Note: European Council of Ministers is a legislative organ while European council is Executive organ

Screen clipping taken: 12/23/2016 11:24 PM

Other Groupings of European Union countries

European Economic Community to European Union

From a homogenous group of six countries (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) in 1957 that formed the EEC, today’s EU has < pan style='font-weight:bold;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>28 member countries
1992 Maastricht Treaty which replaced the EEC with the more ambitious EU and cleared the way for the introduction of the euro in 1999

Eurozone consists of 19 out of the 28 members of EU; (common currency - Euro)
European Economic Area EEA - 31- member has the EU 28 together with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway;

Norway is not member of EU but is a member of European Economic Area and also in European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member.

European Free Trade Association EFTA - 4 members - < /span>Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland
NOTE: NATO has over 20 European members.

Features

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

It deals with three primary areas: personal data, consent for its use, and privacy by design
EU GDPR is a role model for other countries for its data privacy laws

Brexit

Lisbon treaty

Entered into force in 2009
Lisbon gives any EU member the right to quit unilaterally, and outlines the procedure for doing so.
It gives the leaving country two years to negotiate an exit deal and once it's set in motion it can't be stopped except by unanimous consent of all

member states.

NOTE: Lisbon treaty is for exit of EU while Maastricht treaty is for establishment of EU

Why Britain left Europe Union?

People have voted for Brexit in a referendum

Permanent Structured Cooperation on Defence PESCO

It is an intergovernmental, binding, permanent framework and a structured process to gradually deepen defence cooperation within EU framework
Aim is to jointly develop defence capabilities and make them available for EU military operations
PESCO is also open to NATO members. However, there is no provision about the inclusion of non-EU NATO member
So far 25 members of EU have signed the pact except Denmark, Malta and Britain

Horizon 2020

It is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly €80 billion of fund ng available over 7 years (2014 to 2020).
It is helping to achieve research and innovation on excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges

European Union EU