European Union(EU)

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political  union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe

The EU operates through a system of supranational independent institutions and intergovernmental  negotiated decisions by the member states

Institutions of the European Union(EU) include -

• European Commission
• Council of the European Union
• European Council
• Court of Justice of the European Union
• European Central Bank
• Court of Auditors and
• European Parliament

The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993.The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty —whose main architects were Helmut Kohl(German Chancellor during 1982-1998)and Francois Mitterand(French President during 191-1995)

The European Union's membership has grown from the original 6 founding States -

• Belgium
• France
• West Germany
• Italy
• Luxembourg and 
• the Netherlands

to the present-day 28 member states by successive enlargements as countries acceded to the treaties and by doing so, pooled their sovereignty in exchange for representation in the institutions

^{The European Union comprises of 28 Sovereign States -}

•  Austria
•  Belgium
•  Bulgaria
•  Croatia
•  Cyprus
•  Czech Republic
•  Denmark
•  Estonia
•  Finland
•  France
•  Germany
•  Greece
•  Hungary
•  Ireland
•  Italy
•  Latvia
•  Lithuania
•  Luxembourg
•  Malta
•  Netherlands
•  Poland
•  Portugal
•  Romania
•  Slovakia
•  Slovenia
•  Spain
•  Sweden
•  United Kingdom

To join the EU, a country must meet the Copenhagen Criteria defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council.

No member state has ever left the Union, although Greenland (an Autonomous Province of Denmark) withdrew in 1985

 The Lisbon Treaty now provides a clause dealing with how a member leaves the EU