36 Facts About European Union

European Union is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe.

The original member states of what came to be known as the European Union Communities were the Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany.

In March 1948 the Treaty of Brussels was signed, establishing the Western European Union, followed by the International Authority for the Ruhr.

In 1986, the European Union flag began to be used by the EEC and the Single European Union Act was signed.

European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty—whose main architects were Horst Kohler, Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand—came into force on 1 November 1993.

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In particular, it changed the legal structure of the European Union, merging the EU three pillars system into a single legal entity provisioned with a legal personality, created a permanent president of the European Council, the first of which was Herman Van Rompuy, and strengthened the position of the high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy.

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 as legislation, are translated into every official language and the European Union Parliament provides translation for documents and plenary sessions.

The European Commission conducts its internal business in three procedural languages: English, French, and German Similarly, the Court of Justice of the European Union uses French as the working language, while the European Central Bank conducts its business primarily in English.

Catalan, Galician and Basque are not recognised official languages of the European Union but have official status in one member state: therefore, official translations of the treaties are made into them and citizens have the right to correspond with the institutions in these languages.

Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union recognises the "status under national law of churches and religious associations" as well as that of "philosophical and non-confessional organisations".

Christians in the European Union are divided among members of Catholicism, numerous Protestant denominations (Anglicans, Lutherans, and Reformed forming the bulk of this category), and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

European Union operates through a hybrid system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making, and according to the principles of conferral and of subsidiarity (which says that it should act only where an objective cannot be sufficiently achieved by the member states acting alone).

Main legal acts of the European Union come in three forms: regulations, directives, and decisions.

The latter is a decentralized independent body of the European Union, established under the Treaty of Lisbon between 22 of the 27 states of the EU following the method of enhanced cooperation.

Tasks for the president of the European Union Council are ensuring the external representation of the EU, driving consensus and resolving divergences among member states, both during meetings of the European Union Council and over the periods between them.

European Parliament is one of three legislative institutions of the EU, which together with the Council of the European Union is tasked with amending and approving the European Commission's proposals.

The president of the European Union Parliament carries out the role of speaker in Parliament and represents it externally.

Judicial branch of the European Union is formally called the Court of Justice of the European Union and consists of two courts: the Court of Justice and the General Court.

European Union is the largest exporter in the world and in 2008 was the largest importer of goods and services.

The European Union represents all its members at the World Trade Organization, and acts on behalf of member states in any disputes.

European Union has concluded free trade agreements and other agreements with a trade component with many countries worldwide and is negotiating with many others.

However, in May 2022, it was reported that the European Union is preparing another sanction against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

European Union is working to improve cross-border infrastructure, for example through the Trans-European Networks.

ECB is the central institution of the Banking European Union established within the eurozone and manages its Single Supervisory Mechanism.

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European Union Border and Coast Guard Agency is an agency of the EU aiming to detect and stop illegal immigration, human trafficking and terrorist infiltration, having since 2015 a stronger role and mandate along with national authorities for border management.

On 19 October 2020, the European Union revealed new plans to create a legal structure to act against human rights violations worldwide.

Predecessors of the European Union were not devised as a military alliance because NATO was largely seen as appropriate and sufficient for defence purposes.

European Union uses foreign relations instruments like the European Neighbourhood Policy which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the union.

European Union has long sought to mitigate the effects of free markets by protecting workers' rights and preventing social and environmental dumping.

The European Union Green Capital is an annual award given to cities that focuses on the environment, energy efficiency, and quality of life in urban areas to create smart city.

Since 2008, the organisers of this prize, in conjunction with the European Union Parliament, have awarded the Charlemagne Youth Prize in recognition of similar efforts led by young people.

Majority of media in the European Union are national-orientated, although some EU-wide media focusing on European affairs have emerged since the early 1990s, such as Euronews, Eurosport, EUobserver, EURACTIV or Politico Europe.

MEDIA Programme of the European Union has supported the European popular film and audiovisual industries since 1991.

European Union has had a significant positive economic effect on most member states.

European Union has contributed to peace in Europe, in particular by pacifying border disputes, and to the spread of democracy, especially by encouraging democratic reforms in aspiring Eastern European member states after the collapse of the USSR.