Country
Member states
European Union
27 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain,
Sweden, UK; note - Canary Islands (Spain), Azores and Madeira
(Portugal), French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion
(France) are sometimes listed separately even though they are
legally a part of Spain, Portugal, and France; candidate countries:
Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey
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Field Listing :: Preliminary statement
Country
Preliminary statement
European Union
The evolution of the European Union (EU) from a
regional economic agreement among six neighboring states in 1951 to
today's supranational organization of 27 countries across the
European continent stands as an unprecedented phenomenon in the
annals of history. Dynastic unions for territorial consolidation
were long the norm in Europe. On a few occasions even country-level
unions were arranged - the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire were examples - but for such a large number
of nation-states to cede some of their sovereignty to an overarching
entity is truly unique.
Although the EU is not a federation in the strict sense, it is far
more than a free-trade association such as ASEAN, NAFTA, or
Mercosur, and it has many of the attributes associated with
independent nations: its own flag, anthem, founding date, and
currency, as well as an incipient common foreign and security policy
in its dealings with other nations.
In the future, many of these nation-like characteristics are likely
to be expanded. Thus, inclusion of basic intelligence on the EU has
been deemed appropriate as a new, separate entity in The World
Factbook. However, because of the EU's special status, this
description is placed after the regular country entries.
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