History of the European Union

History of the European Union

The European Union  is an economic and political union  of 28 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC), formed by six countries in 1958. The founding members of the Community were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany.

In the intervening years the EU has grown in size by the accession of new member states:

• In 1973 the Communities enlarged to include Denmark  Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
• Greece joined in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986. In 1985, the Schengen Agreement led the way toward the creation of open borders without passport controls between most member states and some non-member states.

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

The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993

• In 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the newly established EU.

In 2002, euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states.

• In 2004, the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the Union.
• On 9 December 2011, Croatia signed the EU making it the 28th member state as of July 2013.

Important institutions of the EU include:

• European Commission
• Council of the European Union
• European Council
• Court of Justice of the European Union
• European Central Bank.

The European Parliament is elected every five years by EU citizens.

The European Union is composed of 28 sovereign Member States:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden
• United Kingdom
• Croatia.

Political centres

• Brussels 
  Luxembourg 
  Strasbourg

Leaders

• European Council Herman Van Rompuy
• European Commission José Manuel Barroso  
• European Parliament Martin Schulz  
• Council of the EU Helle Thorning-Schmidt (Denmark)  

Establishment

• Paris Treaty 23 July 1952 
• Rome Treaty 1 January 1958   
• Maastricht Treaty 1 November 1993 
• Lisbon Treaty 1 December 2009