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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...)

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The Virtuti Militari is Poland's highest military decoration for valor in the face of the enemy. Foreign decorations equivalent to the Virtuti Militari include Britain's Victoria Cross and the U.S. Medal of Honor. It is awarded either for personal heroism or sometimes to commanders representing their units.

Awarded in five classes, the order was created in 1792 by Poland's King Stanisław August Poniatowski. It has been reintroduced, renamed and banned several times, with its fate closely reflecting the vicissitudes of the Polish people. Throughout the decoration's existence, thousands of soldiers and officers, Polish and foreign, several cities and one ship have been awarded the Virtuti Militari for valor or outstanding leadership in war. There have been no new awards since 1989.

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Photo credit: User:Immanuel Giel
The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in 1951 to pool the steel and coal resources of its member-states, thus preventing another European war.

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Did you know?

...that Romania and Bulgaria became full members of the European Union on January 1, 2007?

...that the European Union's member states combined represent the world's largest economy by GDP, larger than the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Japan, the seventh largest territory in the world by area and the third largest by population after China and India?

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Tallinn is the capital city and main seaport of Estonia. It is situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, in north central Estonia., 80 kilometres south of Helsinki. Tallinn's population is registered at 399,180 (as of November 2006). In 1154 Tallinn was marked on the world map of the Arab cartographer al-Idrisi.

As an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219. According to Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union, of all EU member states' capital cities, Tallinn has the largest number of non-EU nationals: 27.8% of its population are not EU citizens.

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General images

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

Image 1Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (from History of the European Union)
Image 2Elaboration by sex (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 3Logo of the Court of Justice of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 4Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
(since 1 December 2019) (from History of the European Union)
Image 5Newest state in yellow (from History of the European Union)
Image 6Signatories of the 2007 declaration in dark blue. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 7José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission (2004–2014) (from History of the European Union)
Image 81922 European flag of the Paneuropean Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 9Of 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 10The Euro symbol shown as a sculpture outside the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 11Mario Draghi (from History of the European Union)
Image 12Logo of the European Court of Auditors (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 13Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the European Union in 2019 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 14Population pyramid of the EU 27 in 2023 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 15Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein and Antonio Segni, signing the European customs union and Euratom in Rome in 1957 (from History of the European Union)
Image 16Political 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 17The ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 18The fertility rate in the EU was 1.38 in 2023 (Kindergarten in France). (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 19The Schuman Parade in Warsaw has been organised by the Schuman Foundation since 1999 (2008 photograph). (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 20Coins and banknotes of the Euro, the single-currency introduced from 1999 (from History of the European Union)
Image 21Aristide Briand (from History of the European Union)
Image 22Flag of the Western Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 23Percentage 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 24Logo of the European Commission (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 25Logo of the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 26Logo of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 27Kaja Kallas, High Representative Vice President (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 28EU fertility has declined in the 2020s. (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 29Donald Trump, President of the United States (from History of the European Union)
Image 30Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570 (from History of the European Union)
Image 31Logo of the European Parliament (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 32Meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, during the Congress of Europe (9 May 1948) (from History of the European Union)
Image 33The 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)
Image 34A 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 35A piece from the original manuscript. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 36The Frankish Empire at its greatest extent, ca. 814 AD (from History of the European Union)
Image 37Organigram 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 38The European Coal and Steel Community's flag. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 39After 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 40Winston 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 41The flag of Europe, emblem of both the Council of Europe and the European Union. (from Symbols of the European Union)