Portal:European Union

Introduction

Portal subpages

Main page Institutions Competences Structural evolution Member states

Welcome to the European Union Portal!

Shortcut

P:EUP:EU

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. A supranational union with a total area of 4,233,255 km² (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated population of just under 452 million as of 2026, its member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around €18.802 trillion in 2025, accounting for approximately one sixth of global economic output. The EU is often described as a sui generis political entity combining characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.

Its cornerstone, the Customs Union, paved the way to establishing an internal single market based on standardised legal framework and legislation that apply 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.

The EU was established, along with its citizenship, when the Maastricht Treaty came into force in 1993. The Union later acquired a single, explicit international legal personality with the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon in 2009. Its beginnings can be traced to the Inner Six states (Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany) at the start of modern European integration in 1948, and to the Western Union, the International Authority for the Ruhr, the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, which were established by treaties. These increasingly amalgamated bodies grew, with their legal successor, the EU, both in size through the accessions of a further 22 states from 1973 to 2013, and in power through acquisitions of policy areas. In 2020, the United Kingdom became the only member state to leave the EU; ten countries are aspiring or negotiating to join it. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

edit

Selected article

Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered on the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, on the east by Poland and the Czech Republic, on the south by Austria and Switzerland, and on the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Germany is a democratic parliamentary federal republic of 16 states. The country previously consisted of several sovereign states with their own history, culture, and religious affiliation. Germany was first unified as a nation-state amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.

The Federal Republic of Germany is a member state of the United Nations, NATO, the G8 and the G4 nations, and is a founding member of the European Union. It has the largest population and largest economy of all European Union member states. Germany is both the world's third largest economy and its largest exporter of goods. Germany is facing major demographic change. Its fertility rate of 1.39 children per mother is one of the lowest in the world, and the federal statistics office estimates the population will shrink to approximately 75 million by 2050. Chemnitz is thought to be the city with the lowest birth rate in the world.

More selected articles...

edit

Selected picture

Pula Arena

Photograph credit: Diego Delso

This is a panoramic view of the interior of the Pula Arena, a Roman amphitheatre in Pula, Croatia. Constructed between 27 BC and AD 86, it is among the six largest surviving Roman arenas in the world, and is the best-preserved ancient monument in the country. The amphitheatre appears on the Croatian ten-kuna banknote.

More selected pictures

edit

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?

More did you know...

edit

Selected city

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated on the Vltava river in central Bohemia, it is home to approximately 1.2 million people. Since 1992, the historic center of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. According to Guinness World Records, Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world.

The land where Prague was to be built has been settled since the Paleolithic Age. Several thousands of years ago, there were trade routes connecting southern parts of Europe to northern Europe which passed through this area, following the course of the river. From around 500 BC the Celtic tribe known as the Boii, were the first known inhabitants of this region known by name. The Boii named the region Bohemia and the river Vltava. In between the 6th and 9th centuries AD the Germanic tribe Marcomanni migrated to Bohemia and other Germanic tribes followed during the 5th century AD, but in the 6th century their elites and majority of inhabitants moved to the Danubian area which enabled a Slavic tribe invading from the West, to settle this area. The Czech Slavic tribe came to Bohemia in the 6th century and Forefather Czech became the founder of the Czech nation.

Read more...

More selected cities...

General images

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

Image 1Of the 382 voting areas in the United Kingdom and Gibraltar a total of 270 returned majority votes in favour of "Leave" whereas 129 returned majority votes in favour of "Remain" in the referendum, including all 32 areas in Scotland.
Leave
Remain
(from History of the European Union)
Image 2Newest state in yellow (from History of the European Union)
Image 3Logo of the European Commission (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 4José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission (2004–2014) (from History of the European Union)
Image 5The flag of Europe, emblem of both the Council of Europe and the European Union. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 6The ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 7Coins and banknotes of the Euro, the single-currency introduced from 1999 (from History of the European Union)
Image 8Political 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 9A 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 10Kaja Kallas, High Representative Vice President (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 11Logo of the Court of Justice of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 12Mario Draghi (from History of the European Union)
Image 13Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (from History of the European Union)
Image 14Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570 (from History of the European Union)
Image 15The Schuman Parade in Warsaw has been organised by the Schuman Foundation since 1999 (2008 photograph). (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 16Elaboration by sex (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 17The fertility rate in the EU was 1.38 in 2023 (Kindergarten in France). (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 18Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein and Antonio Segni, signing the European customs union and Euratom in Rome in 1957 (from History of the European Union)
Image 19Percentage responding that their country on balance benefited from being a member of the EU at Eurobarometer 2026:

  91–100%

  81–90%

  71–80%

  61–70%

  51–60%

(from Politics of the European Union)
Image 20Winston Churchill (right, during the Atlantic Conference), consistent advocate of continental European integration, later along with his son-in-law Duncan Sandys (from History of the European Union)
Image 21Signatories of the 2007 declaration in dark blue. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 22Logo of the European Court of Auditors (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 23Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the European Union in 2019 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 24Logo of the European Parliament (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 25The European Coal and Steel Community's flag. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 26Aristide Briand (from History of the European Union)
Image 27Population pyramid of the EU 27 in 2023 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 28After 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 29Organigram 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 30The Frankish Empire at its greatest extent, ca. 814 AD (from History of the European Union)
Image 31The Euro symbol shown as a sculpture outside the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 32EU fertility has declined in the 2020s. (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 33Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
(since 1 December 2019) (from History of the European Union)
Image 34Flag of the Western Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 35Donald Trump, President of the United States (from History of the European Union)
Image 361922 European flag of the Paneuropean Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 37Logo of the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 38Meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, during the Congress of Europe (9 May 1948) (from History of the European Union)
Image 39A piece from the original manuscript. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 40Logo of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 41The population density of the EU is 106 people per km². Note that the lights in the North Sea are from oil platforms. (from Demographics of the European Union)