(Last updated in May 2020)
[Members] 27 countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
[Population] 440 million
[Area] 4.14 million square kilometers
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[GDP] 16.44 trillion euros (in 2019, including Britain) and 13.92 trillion euros (in 2019, excluding Britain)
[General Department] Brussels, Belgium
[League Flag] A ring consisting of 12 golden five stars on a blue background
[League Song] The main theme of "Ode to Joy" in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
[Celebration Day] "Schumann Day" May 9
[Presidency] Croatia (first half of 2020), Germany (second half of 2020) and Portugal (first half of 2021)
[A Brief History of Development] On May 9, 1950, French Foreign Minister Schumann issued a statement (known as "Schumann Plan" in history), suggesting that France and Germany establish a coal and steel community. In July 1952, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg formally established the European Coal and Steel Community. In January 1958, six countries established the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community. In July 1967, the main institutions of the three communities merged and were collectively called the European Community. In November 1993, the Treaty on European Union (also known as the Maastricht Treaty) came into effect, and the European Community evolved into the European Union (EU). In January 2002, the euro entered circulation smoothly. After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the EU has the qualification as a subject of international law, and formally replaced and inherited the European Community. The Lisbon Treaty also provides for the relevant procedures for member States to withdraw from the EU for the first time.
The EU has experienced seven expansions: Britain, Ireland and Denmark joined in 1973; Greece joined in 1981; Spain and Portugal joined in 1986; Austria, Finland and Sweden joined in 1995; On May 1, 2004, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta joined the EU. On January 1, 2007, Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU. Croatia officially became the 28th member of the European Union on July 1st, 2013. At present, Albania, Montenegro, northern Macedonia, Turkey and Serbia are candidates for membership.
Britain decided to leave the EU by referendum in June 2016, and left the EU on January 31, 2020 and entered a transitional period until December 31, 2020.
[Internal Construction] The European integration construction has made continuous positive progress in twists and turns for more than half a century. The European Union has successively established a customs union, implemented common trade policies, agricultural and fishery policies, unified the internal big market, and basically realized the free circulation of goods, people, capital and services. Established an economic and monetary union and unified the currency in the euro zone. The integration construction has gradually expanded to the fields of diplomacy, security, justice and internal affairs, and has made continuous progress. Through the Treaty of Amsterdam and the Treaty of Nice, the EU has gradually incorporated the Schengen Agreement into the EU legal framework and judicial cooperation in the civil field into the EU mechanism. After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009, the reform of the EU mechanism started one after another. In that year, Van Rompuy, the first permanent president of the European Council, and Ashton, the first EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, were elected. In March 2010, the European Union put forward a plan for the establishment of the External Action Agency, and the appointment of the main positions and the establishment of the agency were initially completed the following year. After the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the EU further promoted relevant reforms, including actively promoting the construction of banking union, capital market union, energy union and single digital market, and strengthening cooperation in the fields of security and defense. At present, the EU is the group of countries with the highest degree of regional integration in the world.
[Main institution]
(1) the European Council, also known as the EU summit or the EU summit. The highest decision-making body of the European Union. The Council of Europe is composed of heads of state or government of member States, the President of the Council of Europe and the President of the European Commission. The Council of Europe has the post of President, with a term of two and a half years, which can be renewed for one term. The current chairman is former Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who took office on December 1, 2019.
(2) The Council of the European Union, also known as the Council of Ministers, is the EU legislative and policy-making and coordinating body. The Council is composed of one ministerial representative from each member state and corresponding ministers according to different areas of discussion. Except that the Council of Ministers is chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy of the European Union, the President of the Council is the rotating presidency, with a term of six months.
(3) The European Commission, referred to as the European Commission for short, is the legislative proposal and executive body of the European Union. The current Committee consists of 27 members, consisting of one representative from each member country, including one chairman and eight vice-chairmen, with a term of five years. The current chairman is Ursula von der Leyen, former German Defense Minister, who took office on December 1, 2019.
(4) European Parliament. EU supervisory, advisory and legislative bodies. Members are directly elected by member States for a term of five years. The current (ninth) parliament was formally established in July 2019, with 705 members and 7 party groups. The current Speaker, Sassoli (Italian), was elected and took office in July 2019 for a term of two and a half years.
(5) European External Action Service. Under the leadership of the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (who is also the Vice-President of the European Commission), it coordinates the foreign policies of member States. The current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, former Spanish Foreign Minister, who took office on December 1, 2019.
The EU is the second largest economy in the world. In 2019, the euro zone economy grew by 1.2%. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the economic growth rate of the euro zone will be -7.5% in 2020.
[External Relations] The EU External Action Agency is the competent department of the EU’s external relations, which consists of six general departments: Asia-Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Americas, Africa, Middle East and North Africa and Human Rights, Global and Multilateral Affairs. The authority includes traditional foreign policy, development policy, human rights, military security, civil crisis management and other fields. EU member states make decisions through intergovernmental cooperation.
The EU is actively engaged in all-round diplomacy. By the end of 2019, diplomatic relations have been established with more than 160 countries, and 39 regional and international organizations have sent representative offices to the European Union. We have established strategic partnership and regular leaders’ meeting mechanism with many parties. The EU pursues effective multilateralism, advocates free trade, actively leads international cooperation in energy and climate change, and emphasizes maintaining the status and role of the United Nations. In June 2016, the EU issued a global strategy of foreign and security policy entitled "Common Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe", aiming at the four common interests of promoting peace and security, achieving prosperity, promoting democracy and establishing a rules-based international order, and taking "principled pragmatism" as the basic program of foreign action. In December 2019, the new EU institutions decided to take "pragmatism, unity and partnership" as the three major diplomatic principles and vigorously carry out "climate diplomacy".
Relations with Britain. During the transition period, Britain has the right to negotiate new agreements in trade and other fields with third parties when it withdraws from the EU institutions, but it must continue to abide by EU laws and rules, temporarily stay in the EU customs union and the single market, and start negotiations on the UK-EU free trade agreement.
Relations with the United States. Europe and the United States are allies in politics and security, and are the most important trade and investment partners in economy. In July 2018, European Commission President Juncker visited the United States, held talks with US President Trump and issued a joint statement, saying that it would open a new stage of Europe-US relations with profound friendship, trade promotion and mutual benefit. In September, the European Parliament adopted a report on European-American relations. There are differences on issues such as free trade, military expenditure sharing, climate change and the Iranian nuclear issue. In October 2019, the United States announced a new tariff of 6.7 billion euros on European products. In December, the United States once again announced the imposition of tariffs on European products, and the European Union said that member States would jointly respond to the US-Canada tariff plan.
Relations with Russia. EU attaches importance to its relations with Russia. Russia is the largest neighbor, the third largest trading partner and an important energy source of the European Union. At the same time, there are differences and contradictions between Europe and Russia on issues such as energy supply and European security. The Ukrainian crisis has seriously affected European-Russian relations, leading to economic sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia. In June 2019, the EU announced the extension of sanctions against Russia until June 23, 2020.
Relations with western Balkan countries. The EU has held many summits with five western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia) and Kosovo, mainly discussing regional economic development and the accession of western Balkan countries. In February 2018, the European Commission issued the "Western Balkan Strategy" to actively promote the accession process of the five western Balkan countries and Kosovo. In April 2019, the informal summit of the Western Balkans of the European Union was held in Berlin, attended by leaders of the five western Balkans and Kosovo. In July, the EU Western Balkan Summit was held in Poznan, Poland, focusing on cooperation in the fields of transportation and energy, digital economy, security and good-neighborly relations. At present, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are candidates for membership.
Relations with "eastern partner countries" In 2009, aiming at Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine and other six countries, the European Union put forward the "Eastern Partnership" plan under the framework of peripheral policies, and devoted itself to promoting relations with the six countries at the bilateral and multilateral levels. In 2009, the first Eastern Partnership Summit was held in Prague and the Declaration on Eastern Partnership was signed. Since then, the summit has been held four times, namely Warsaw Summit (2011), Vilnius Summit (2013), Riga Summit (2015) and Brussels Summit (2017). In May 2019, the EU held a series of activities to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Eastern Partnership. In October, the European Council decided that the European Commission and the EU External Action Agency should solicit opinions from all parties and submit the EU’s "Eastern Partnership" development proposal after 2020 in due course.
Relations with Central Asian countries. In December 2015, the EU held an EU-Central Asia ministerial meeting with Central Asian countries, and announced that it would provide 1 billion euros of development assistance to Central Asian countries by 2020 to support countries in the region to achieve sustainable natural resource management, social and economic development and regional security. In May 2019, the EU issued a new strategic policy document for Central Asia. The EU supports the early realization of peaceful reconciliation in Afghanistan, and believes that only through political dialogue can the Afghan issue be finally solved, and supports the signing of a peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Relations with African countries. The EU is Africa’s main trading partner and the most important donor. In December 2005, the EU adopted its first Africa strategy document, EU and Africa: Towards Strategic Partnership. In May 2019, Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, visited four countries in the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti and Ethiopia). In February 2020, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy borrell visited the AU headquarters to attend the 10th EU-AU Commission meeting. In March, the EU issued a new strategic document on cooperation with Africa, focusing on green transformation and energy, digital transformation, sustainable growth and employment, peace, security and governance, migration and personnel mobility.
Relations with countries in the Middle East. The EU is concerned about the Middle East peace process and advocates recognizing Israel’s right to exist and the Palestinian people’s right to establish a state, and peacefully resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict through political negotiations. The EU is seriously concerned about the announcement by the United States to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the impact this will have on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. The EU is committed to safeguarding the Iranian nuclear deal, supporting the "trade settlement support mechanism" of Britain, France and Germany, and expressing concern about Iran’s reduced compliance. The EU is the largest provider of humanitarian assistance to Syria, supports Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, advocates political channels to solve the Syrian issue, and actively promotes the Syrian opposition to participate in peace talks. The EU is concerned about Libyan refugees, terrorism, arms smuggling and other issues, supports the UN-led peace process, and calls for political dialogue to solve the Libya issue.
Relations with other Asian countries. The EU attaches great importance to its relations with Asia and continues to increase its investment in the region. In January 2018, the 25th meeting of the EU-ASEAN Joint Cooperation Committee was held in Jakarta, Indonesia. In May, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers adopted a resolution on strengthening security cooperation with Asia, regarding maritime security, cyber security, counter-terrorism, dealing with mixed threats, conflict prevention and non-proliferation as key areas for deepening security cooperation between the two sides. In October 2019, the EU issued the policy document "Strengthening Security Cooperation with Asia", clarifying that the EU attaches great importance to security cooperation with the Asian region, and will deepen cooperation between the two sides in the fields of maritime security, cyber security, counter-terrorism, conflict prevention and mixed threats, and focus on improving the level of cooperation with ASEAN.
Relations with Latin American countries. EU seeks cooperation with Latin American countries. In April 2018, the EU and Mexico reached a new trade agreement to impose zero tariffs on trade in goods. In May, the first EU-Cuba Council meeting was held in Brussels. On the issue of Venezuela, the EU advocates that the crisis should be resolved by the Venezuelan people themselves through peaceful means, and that Venezuela needs to hold free and fair presidential elections and oppose external military intervention. In February 2019, the EU led the establishment of the "International Contact Group" on Venezuela. In October, the European Union, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration held an international solidarity conference on the Venezuelan refugee and immigration crisis in Brussels.
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Source: Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
