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EUROPEAN UNION

The EU, with its expansion to 25 member states, is poised to become a vast federal superstate. European Union.

Powers and functions are divided between a central government and a number of political subdivisions that have a significant degree of political autonomy.

¿A superstate? The EU 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 others. But EU is not a state, not a superstate.

EU is a UNION. Some elements are considered essentials at the moment: currency, common market, flag, a president, a legislative body, a national anthem, open borders between member states, a constitution, a Bill of Rights, and a court system that can overrule the highest of any member court.

The European Union, comprising 25 member states, is the largest political and economic entity covering the European continent.

1951

A regional economic agreement among six neighboring states.

2006

A supranational organization of 25 countries.

INTEGRATION. Milestones

1951 - Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg founded the European Coal and Steel Community and, in 1957, the European Economic Community.

1973 - Denmark, Ireland, Britain join. They are followed by Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), Austria, Finland and Sweden (all in 1995).

1992 - The EEC is renamed European Union; vows to adopt a single currency and a common foreign policy.

2000 - EU treaty is amended to allow a dozen new members.

2004-1 May. Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta join.

The Six. 1957-73

The EEC came into being with the signature of Treaty of Rome in 1957.

The ‘Nine’. The ‘Ten’ 1973-86

On 1 January 1973, Britain, Denmark and Eire joined the EEC at the same time. Norway held a referendum and the people rejected the idea of membership.

On 1 January 1981, Greece joined the EEC.

The ‘12’. 1986-90-94 

On 1 January 1986, Portugal and Spain joined the EEC.

On 1 January 1990, East Germany entered the EEC, after its merger with West Germany.

The ‘15’. 1995

 On 1 January 1995, Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the EEC at the same time.

THE ‘25’. 2004

Ten new countries joined the EU in 2004 - Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia - bringing the current membership to 25.

At present, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Turkey are the four Applicant Countries for future entrance intothe European Union.

I-THE PEOPLE

1- POPULATION

11-ABSOLUTE, Growth, Density

Rank	Country	Population	Date of Information
1	World	6,525,170,264	July 2006 est.
2	China	1,313,973,713	July 2006 est.
3	India	1,095,351,995	July 2006 est.
4	European Union	456,953,258	July 2006 est.
5	United States	298,444,215	July 2006 est.
6	Indonesia	245,452,739	July 2006 est.
CIA. World Factbook

Population	July 2005 est.	456,953,258
Age structure	0-14 years	16.03%	male	37,608,010
	female	35,632,351
15-64 years	67.17%	male	154,439,536
	female	152,479,619
65 years and over	16.81%	male	31,515,921
	female	45,277,821
Population growth rate	0.15%	July 2005 est.
Birth rate	10 births/1,000	July 2005 est.
Death rate	10.1 deaths/1,000	July 2005 est.
Net migration rate	1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population	July 2005 est.
Sex ratio	at birth
under 15 years	1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years	1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and older	0.69 male(s)/female
total population	0.96 male(s)/female	July 2004 est.
Infant mortality rate	total	5.1 deaths/1,000 live births
male	5.6 deaths/1,000 live births
female	4.5 deaths/1,000 live births	July 2005 est.
Life expectancy at birth	total population	78.3 years
		male	75.1 years
	female	81.6 years July 2005 est.
Total fertility rate	1.47 children born/woman	July 2005 est.
Religions	Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim, Jewish.
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; Irish (Gaelic) will become the twenty-first language on 1 January 2007.
CIA. This page was last updated on 10 January, 2006

GROWTH

2006

The role of migration in population developments is far less prominent in the ten new EU member states than in the former EU-15. In the new member states, particularly those in Eastern Europe, the growth of the population is largely determined by births and deaths.

Eurostat expects the population in the EU to increase in the long run and reach 470 million in 2025. This increase will be entirely due to foreign migration. Until 2025, deaths will outnumber births by 5 million. Eurostat anticipates a reduction of the EU population after 2025 to 450 million in 2050.

2005

Population growth in the EU is mainly the result of foreign migration and, to a lesser extent, of natural growth.

Net migration in 2005 for the EU as a whole was estimated by Eurostat at 1.69 million.

Natural population growth was 327 thousand in 2005. Thus, total population growth in 2005 in the EU amounted to approximately 2.02 million. Altogether, 462 million people were living in the EU on 1 January 2006.

2004

EU25 population up by 0.5% in 2004; Almost one third of births outside marriage.

1 May 2004, the European Union welcomed 10 new accession countries as members.

The population of the EU-25 member states stood at 456.8 million on 1 January 2004.

2003

In 2003 the population of the 15 member states of the European Union reached 380.8 million, growing by nearly a quarter from 1950, before the founding of the European Common Market, which later became the EU.

DENSITY

Patterns of population density vary widely across the EU. The Netherlands has nearly 500 people per square kilometre of its land compared to fewer than 20 people for an equivalent space in Finland-Norway.

12-BIRTHS. DEATHS

Births

Birth rate

10 births/1,000

July 2005 est.

Deaths

Death rate

10.1 deaths/1,000

July 2005 est.

Net Migration

Net migration rate

1.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population

July 2005 est.

13-GROUPS

Europe’s boundaries

Cultural characteristics: Greece & Rome, Christianity, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution, but stops short of empire and imperialism.

Western Europe

Original inhabitants of western Europe were white-skinned, barely touched by the Mongol invasions - or by Asian and African immigrants until after World War II.

Northern Europe

The Nordic race: a comparatively long-headed, fair-headed group.

Central Europe

Short-headed group comprising the east European race and four dark-haired races: Alpine, Dinaric, Anatolian and Turanian.

Southern group

Long-headed and dark-haired, made up of the Mediterranean, south-western and Indo-Afghan races.

Minorities

Sami

The people previously known as Lapps. Native / indigenous people of Scandinavia.

Roma, Gypsies and Travellers

The Roma and Travellers form a group of approximately 8-10 million people in Europe. As a result of centuries of rejection, many Roma and Travellers emerge as the group most vulnerable to racism. They are to be found in almost all Council of Europe member states and, indeed, in some Central and East European countries they represent over 5% of the population.

14-LABOR

141-LABOR FORCE: 218,500,000. 2005 estimated.

Employment

Around 20 million jobs need to be created in the EU-25 to meet the overall target of bringing the Union back towards full employment.

The targets are:

Overall employment rate (2004: 63%, target 2010: 70%)

Female employment rate (2004: 55%, target 2010: 60%)

Employment rate for workers over 55 (2004: 40%, target 2010: 50%)

Solution EU Level

Remove barriers to mobility between and within Member States (e.g. recognition of qualifications, pension portability, better provision of information, etc.).

The Commission will propose to revise the European Employment Strategy in 2005, building on the Lisbon Action Plan.

Use the European Social Fund to support investments in training, active labor market policies, modern work organization, support to institutional capacity and reform of public administrations.

Carry out reforms prescribed within the framework of the European Employment Strategy.

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