European Union

It is a supernational and Intergovernmental union of 27 states
Established in 1992 by the Treaty of EU - The Maastricht Treaty
It is the de facto successor of the six member European Economic Community founded in 1957 (The Treaty of Rome)
The Treaty of Paris - 1951 had the foundation for EU - European Coal and Steel Community of West Germany, Italy, Benelex and France - this changed to European Economic Comm and then to European Comm.

EU Institutions:

• European Parliament
• European Council
• Council of the European Union - the legislative branch apart from the EU parliament
• European Central Bank - 13 member states with Euro (estd in 1998 and HQ in Frankfurt)
• European Commission - acts as an executive
• The European Court of Justice - Luxembourg

The seat of the European Commission is in Brussels with the President - Jose Manuel Barroso

European Parliament Head - Hans Gert Pottering, and the seat is in Strasbourg

Council of the European Union, Head - Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Sectretariat of the European Parliament - Luxembourg

President of the European Council - Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

High Representative of the CSFP - Javier Solana

Seat of the European council at present - Germany

Commissioner for Trade for the EU bloc in WTO - Peter Mendelson

Members of the EU:

• France
• Italy
• Germany
• Luxembourg
• Belgium
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• UK
• Ireland
• Greece
• Portugal
• Spain
• Austria
• Sweden
• Finland
• Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta Poland, Slovekia, Slovenia (all these added in 2004)
• Romania and Bulgaria (joined in 2007)

Enlargement Candidates:

• Turkey
• Croatia
• The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Pillars of the Treaty of Maastricht:

• European Communities
• The Common Foreign and Security Policy - CFSP (it acknowledges NATO responsible for the territorial defence and Peace keeping in Europe)
• Justice and Home Affairs

ERASMUS program for Higher Education

Bologna Process for Higher Education

Global Positioning System - Galileo - Global Navigation Satellite System - to be built by EU and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA is a non EU organization and so is the EFTA)