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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 Treaty of Lisbon or Lisbon Treaty (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement which amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Lisbon Treaty was signed by the EU member states on 13 December 2007, and entered into force on 1 December 2009. It amends the Maastricht Treaty (also known as the Treaty on European Union) and the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC; also known as the Treaty of Rome). In this process, the Rome Treaty was renamed to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Prominent changes included the move from unanimity to qualified majority voting in several policy areas in the Council of Ministers, a change in calculating such a majority to a new double majority, a more powerful European Parliament forming a bicameral legislature alongside the Council of ministers under the ordinary legislative procedure, a consolidated legal personality for the EU and the creation of a long-term President of the European Council and a High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The Treaty also made the Union's bill of rights, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, legally binding.

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Carta marina

Map credit: Olaus Magnus

The carta marina is the earliest detailed map of the Nordic countries. It took twelve years to finish and the first copies were printed in 1539 in Venice. Its existence had long been considered apocryphal, until a copy was discovered in Munich in 1886. The map is divided in 3×3 sheets with the dimension 55x40 cm (22x16 in), each made from a separate woodcut block. Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (Rome, 1555) is a much larger commentary on the map.

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Did you know?

...that the President of Ireland, who serves as head of state, is elected for a seven year term and can be re-elected only once?

...that within the Eurozone the European Central Bank has the exclusive authority to set monetary policy?

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Rome is the capital of Italy and of its region, called Lazio. It is located across the confluence of the Tiber and Aniene rivers. It was once the capital of the Roman Empire, the most powerful, largest and longest lasting empire of classical Western civilization. The Vatican, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Church and the home of the Pope.

Rome is the largest comune in Italy and it is also one of the largest European capital cities in land area, with an area of 1,285 square kilometers. Within the city limits, the population is about 2.5 million; almost 3.8 million live in the urbanised area of Rome, as represented by the province of Rome, making it second in population to Milan. With a gross domestic product of €97 billion in the year 2005, Rome produced 6.7% of Italy's GDP.

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General images

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

Image 1Logo of the European Parliament (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 2Meeting in the Hall of Knights in The Hague, during the Congress of Europe (9 May 1948) (from History of the European Union)
Image 3The Frankish Empire at its greatest extent, ca. 814 AD (from History of the European Union)
Image 4The 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 51922 European flag of the Paneuropean Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 6Logo of the European Commission (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 7Newest state in yellow (from History of the European Union)
Image 8EU fertility has declined in the 2020s. (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 9Political 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 10Mario Draghi (from History of the European Union)
Image 11Logo of the Court of Justice of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 12Coins and banknotes of the Euro, the single-currency introduced from 1999 (from History of the European Union)
Image 13Organigram 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 14Flag of the Western Union (from History of the European Union)
Image 15Life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the European Union in 2019 (from Demographics 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 18A 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 19After 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 20The Euro symbol shown as a sculpture outside the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 21José Manuel Barroso President of the European Commission (2004–2014) (from History of the European Union)
Image 22Signatories of the 2007 declaration in dark blue. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 23The European Coal and Steel Community's flag. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 24Konrad Adenauer, Walter Hallstein and Antonio Segni, signing the European customs union and Euratom in Rome in 1957 (from History of the European Union)
Image 25Logo of the European Council and the Council of the European Union (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 26A piece from the original manuscript. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 27The Schuman Parade in Warsaw has been organised by the Schuman Foundation since 1999 (2008 photograph). (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 28Europa regina in Sebastian Münster's "Cosmographia", 1570 (from History of the European Union)
Image 29The ordinary legislative procedure of the European Union (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 30Of 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 31Winston 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 32Vladimir Putin, President of Russia (from History 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 34Percentage 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 35Kaja Kallas, High Representative Vice President (from Politics of the European Union)
Image 36The flag of Europe, emblem of both the Council of Europe and the European Union. (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 37Logo of the European Court of Auditors (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 38Logo of the European Central Bank (from Symbols of the European Union)
Image 39Donald Trump, President of the United States (from History of the European Union)
Image 40Population pyramid of the EU 27 in 2023 (from Demographics of the European Union)
Image 41Aristide Briand (from History of the European Union)