Languages:
Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German,
Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish,
Portuguese, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish; note - only official
languages are listed
Government European Union
Union name:
conventional long form: European Union
abbreviation: EU
Political structure:
a hybrid intergovernmental and supranational organization
Capital:
Brussels, Belgium
Member states:
25 countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy,
Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK; note - Canary Islands
(Spain), Azores and Madeira (Portugal), and French Guyana,
Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion (France) are sometimes listed
separately even though they are legally a part of Spain, Portugal,
and France; candidate countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Turkey
Independence:
7 February 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed establishing the EU); 1
November 1993 (Maastricht Treaty entered into force)
National holiday:
Europe Day 9 May (1950); note - a Union-wide holiday, the day that
Robert Schuman proposed the creation of an organized Europe
Constitution:
based on a series of treaties: the Treaty of Paris, which set up
the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951; the Treaties
of Rome, which set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the
European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) in 1957; the Single
European Act in 1986; the Treaty on European Union (Maastrict) in
1992; the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1997; and the Treaty of Nice in
2001; note - a new draft Constitutional Treaty, signed on 29 October
2004 in Rome, gives member states two years for ratification either
by parliamentary vote or national referendum before it is scheduled
to take effect on 1 November 2006
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal