The European Union (EU) is a grouping with a current membership of 28 states. Outside Europe, the EU also comprises some overseas areas. In total, it has more than half a billion inhabitants. Measured by gross domestic product, the EU internal market is the world’s biggest common economic area. The EU has legal personality, and therefore has the right to inspect and to speak at the United Nations.[7]

The political system of the EU, which has formed in the course of European integration, is based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It contains supranational as well as interstate elements. Whereas in the European Council and in the Council of the European Union the individual states with their governments are represented, the European Parliament represents the Union’s citizens directly in the law-making of the EU. The European Commission as an executive organ and the EU Court of Justice as a judicial institution are also supranational bodies. The beginnings of the EU date back to the 1950s, when six states first founded the European Economic Community (EEC).

Deliberate economic integration was intended to prevent military conflicts in future, and to accelerate economic growth and thus citizen’s prosperity due to the larger market. During the curse of the following years, other states entered the Community (EC) in several rounds of expansion. From 1985, the internal borders between member states were opened with the Schengen Agreement. With the Maastricht Treaty, the European Union was founded in 1992, receiving areas of authority in non-economic fields of politics. The supranational responsibilities of the EU were extended in several reform treaties, most recently the Lisbon Treaty, and the common institutions were to some extent democratised in stages. A European public and identity is, however, forming only gradually. Since the 1980s, with the extensions in the powers of the EU and accompanying increase in its importance, the public debate about the EU itself has also been growing, with EU-sceptical positions also gaining in popularity.

Even exit scenarios were made possible by the Lisbon Treaty, and in the United Kingdom in 2016, such a situation was brought about via referendum. Out of the 28 EU states, 19 form an Economic and Monetary Union. In 2002 a shared currency, the euro, was introduced for these countries. In the framework of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the member states cooperate in domestic and justice policy. Through the joint external and security policy, they endeavour to present a united appearance towards third countries. The EU members also work together in other areas, such as in digital policy, e.g. in the course of the initiative Europe 2020. The European Union has observer status in the G7, is a member in the G20 and represents its members in the World Trade Organisation. In 2012, the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.[8] The most-spoken languages in the EU are English, German and French.