European Union

• cold temperate;
• potentially subarctic in the north to temperate;
• mild wet winters;
• hot dry summers in the south

• population distribution varies considerably from country to country, but tends to follow a pattern of coastal and river settlement, with urban agglomerations forming large hubs facilitating large scale housing, industry, and commerce;
• the area in and around the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (known collectively as Benelux), is the most densely populated area in the EU

• flooding along coasts;
• avalanches in mountainous area;
• earthquakes in the south;
• volcanic eruptions in Italy;
• periodic droughts in Spain;
• ice floes in the Baltic

• population distribution varies considerably from country to country, but tends to follow a pattern of coastal and river settlement, with urban agglomerations forming large hubs facilitating large scale housing, industry, and commerce;
• the area in and around the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg (known collectively as Benelux), is the most densely populated area in the EU

at birth:

1.06 male(s)/female

0-14 years:

1.05 male(s)/female

15-24 years:

1.05 male(s)/female

25-54 years:

1.01 male(s)/female

55-64 years:

0.95 male(s)/female

65 years and over:

0.75 male(s)/female

total population:

0.95 male(s)/female (2020 est.)

conventional long form:

European Union

abbreviation:

EU

name:

• Brussels (Belgium), Strasbourg (France), Luxembourg, Frankfurt (Germany);
• note - the European Council, a gathering of the EU heads of state and/or government, and the Council of the European Union, a ministerial-level body of ten formations, meet in Brussels, Belgium, except for Council meetings held in Luxembourg in April, June, and October;
• the European Parliament meets in Brussels and Strasbourg, France, and has administrative offices in Luxembourg;
• the Court of Justice of the European Union is located in Luxembourg;
• and the European Central Bank is located in Frankfurt, Germany

geographic coordinates:

(Brussels) 50 50 N, 4 20 E

time difference:

UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

note: the 27 European Union countries spread across three time zones; a proposal has been put forward to do away with daylight savings time in all EU countries

• Europe Day (also known as Schuman Day), 9 May (1950);
• note - the day in 1950 that Robert SCHUMAN proposed the creation of what became the European Coal and Steel Community, the progenitor of today's European Union, with the aim of achieving a united Europe

history:

• none;
• note - the EU legal order relies primarily on two consolidated texts encompassing all provisions as amended from a series of past treaties: the Treaty on European Union (TEU), as modified by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty states in Article 1 that "the HIGH CONTRACTING PARTIES establish among themselves a EUROPEAN UNION ... on which the Member States confer competences to attain objectives they have in common";
• Article 1 of the TEU states further that the EU is "founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter referred to as 'the Treaties')," both possessing the same legal value;
• Article 6 of the TEU provides that a separately adopted Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union "shall have the same legal value as the Treaties"

amendments:

• European Union treaties can be amended in several ways: 1) Ordinary Revision Procedure (for key amendments to the treaties);
• initiated by an EU country’s government, by the European Parliament, or by the European Commission;
• following adoption of the proposal by the European Council, a convention is formed of national government representatives to review the proposal and subsequently a conference of government representatives also reviews the proposal;
• passage requires ratification by all EU countries;
• 2) Simplified Revision Procedure (for amendment of EU internal policies and actions);
• passage of a proposal requires unanimous European Council vote following European Council consultation with the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Central Bank (if the amendment concerns monetary matters) and requires ratification by all EU countries;
• 3) Passerelle Clause (allows the alteration of a legislative procedure without a formal amendment of the treaties);
• 4) Flexibility Clause (permits the EU to decide in subject areas where EU competences have not been explicitly granted in the Treaties but are necessary to the attainment of the objectives set out in the Treaty);
• note - the Treaty of Lisbon (signed in December 2007 and effective in December 2009) amended the two treaties that formed the EU - the Maastricht Treaty (1993) and the Treaty of Rome (1958), known in updated form as the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

• unique supranational law system in which, according to an interpretive declaration of member-state governments appended to the Treaty of Lisbon, "the Treaties and the law adopted by the Union on the basis of the Treaties have primacy over the law of Member States" under conditions laid down in the case law of the Court of Justice;
• key principles of EU law include fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and as resulting from constitutional traditions common to the EU's 27-member states;
• EU law is divided into 'primary' and 'secondary' legislation;
• primary legislation is derived from the consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and are the basis for all EU action;
• secondary legislation - which includes directives, regulations, and decisions - is derived from the principles and objectives set out in the treaties

• 18 years of age (16 years in Austria);
• universal;
• voting for the European Parliament is permitted in each member state

description:

• two legislative bodies consisting of the Council of the European Union (27 seats; ministers representing the 27 member states) and the European Parliament (705 seats; seats allocated among member states roughly in proportion to population size; members elected by proportional representation to serve 5-year terms);
• note - the European Parliament President, Antonio TAJANI (Italian center-right), was elected in January 2017 by a majority of fellow members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and represents the Parliament within the EU and internationally;
• the Council of the EU and the MEPs share responsibilities for adopting the bulk of EU legislation, normally acting in co-decision on Commission proposals (but not in the area of Common Foreign and Security Policy, which is governed by consensus of the EU member state governments)

elections:

last held on 23-26 May 2019 (next to be held May 2024)

election results:

• percent of vote - NA;
• seats by party (as of 31 January 2020) - EPP 187, S&D 148, ALDE/EDP 97, ID 76, Greens/EFA 67, ECR 59, GUE-NGL 40, non-inscripts 31;
• composition - NA

• Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe or ALDE [Guy VERHOFSTADT]
• European United Left-Nordic Green Left or GUE/NGL [Gabriele ZIMMER]
• Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy or EFDD [Nigel FARAGE]
• Europe of Nations and Freedom or ENF or ENL [Nicolas BAY and Marcel DE GRAAFF]
• European Conservatives and Reformists or ECR [Syed KAMALL and Ryszard LEGUTKO]
• European Greens/European Free Alliance or Greens/EFA [Ska KELLER, Philippe LAMBERTS]
• European People's Party or EPP [Manfred WEBER]
• Identity and Democracy Party [Marco ZANNI]
• Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats or S&D [Udo BULLMANN]

chief of mission:

Ambassador David O'SULLIVAN (since 18 November 2014)

chancery:

2175 K Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20037

telephone:

[1] (202) 862-9500

FAX:

[1] (202) 429-1766

chief of mission:

Ambassador Gordon SONDLAND (since 9 July 2018)

telephone:

[32] (2) 811-4100

embassy:

13 Zinnerstraat/Rue Zinner, B-1000 Brussels

mailing address:

use embassy street address

FAX:

[32] (2) 811-5154

• a blue field with 12 five-pointed gold stars arranged in a circle in the center;
• blue represents the sky of the Western world, the stars are the peoples of Europe in a circle, a symbol of unity;
• the number of stars is fixed

name:

Ode to Joy

lyrics/music:

no lyrics/Ludwig VAN BEETHOVEN, arranged by Herbert VON KARAJAN

note: official EU anthem since 1985; the anthem is meant to represent all of Europe rather than just the organization, conveying ideas of peace, freedom, and unity

Fitch rating:

AAA (2010)

Moody's rating:

Aaa (2014)

Standard & Poors rating: AA (2016)

• wheat, barley, oilseeds, sugar beets, wine, grapes;
• dairy products, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry;
• fish

among the world's largest and most technologically advanced regions, the EU industrial base includes: ferrous and non-ferrous metal production and processing, metal products, petroleum, coal, cement, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, rail transportation equipment, passenger and commercial vehicles, construction equipment, industrial equipment, shipbuilding, electrical power equipment, machine tools and automated manufacturing systems, electronics and telecommunications equipment, fishing, food and beverages, furniture, paper, textiles

agriculture:

5%

industry:

21.9%

services:

73.1% (2014 est.)

lowest 10%:

2.8%

highest 10%:

23.8% (2016 est.)

annual passenger traffic on registered air carriers:

636,860,155 (2018)

annual freight traffic on registered air carriers:

31,730,660,000 (2018)

• 180 Central African Republic (EUTM);
• 600 Bosnia-Herzegovina (EUTM);
• 700 Mali (EUTM);
• 200 Somalia (EUTM) (2020)

• the current five-nation Eurocorps, formally established in 1992 and activated the following year, began in 1987 as a French-German Brigade;
• Belgium (1993), Spain (1994), and Luxembourg (1996) joined over the next few years;
• five additional countries participate in Eurocorps as associated nations: Greece, Poland, and Turkey (since 2002), Italy and Romania (joined in 2009 and 2016 respectively);
• Eurocorps consists of approximately 1,000 troops at its headquarters in Strasbourg, France and the 5,000-man Franco-German Brigade (2020)

• Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps/Qods Force;
• Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham (ISIS);
• al-Qa'ida (2019)

note: details about the history, aims, leadership, organization, areas of operation, tactics, targets, weapons, size, and sources of support of the group(s) appear(s) in Appendix-T

• as a political union, the EU has no border disputes with neighboring countries, but Estonia has no land boundary agreements with Russia, Slovenia disputes its land and maritime boundaries with Croatia, and Spain has territorial and maritime disputes with Morocco and with the UK over Gibraltar;
• the EU has set up a Schengen area - consisting of 22 EU member states that have signed the convention implementing the Schengen agreements or "acquis" (1985 and 1990) on the free movement of persons and the harmonization of border controls in Europe;
• these agreements became incorporated into EU law with the implementation of the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam on 1 May 1999;
• in addition, non-EU states Iceland and Norway (as part of the Nordic Union) have been included in the Schengen area since 1996 (full members in 2001), Switzerland since 2008, and Liechtenstein since 2011 bringing the total current membership to 26;
• the UK (since 2000) and Ireland (since 2002) take part in only some aspects of the Schengen area, especially with respect to police and criminal matters;
• nine of the 13 new member states that joined the EU since 2004 joined Schengen on 21 December 2007;
• of the four remaining EU states, Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia are obligated to eventually join, while Cyprus' entry is held up by the ongoing Cyprus dispute