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Encyclopedia > Life in the European Union

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Life in the European Union

Contents

Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Culture of Europe might better be described as a series of overlapping cultures of Europe. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Citizenship of the Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. ... Cultural cooperation in the European Union has become a community competency since its inclusion in 1992 in the Maastricht Treaty. ... The demographics of the European Union show a highly populated, culturally diverse union of 27 member states. ... The European Union (EU) was created by six founding states in 1958 (following the earlier establishment by the same six states of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952) and has grown to 27 member states. ... For other uses, see Euro (disambiguation) or EUR (disambiguation). ... Foreign relations of the European Union Foreign relations of Austria Foreign relations of Belgium Foreign relations of Cyprus Foreign relations of the Czech Republic Foreign relations of Denmark Foreign relations of Estonia Foreign relations of Finland Foreign relations of France Foreign relations of Germany Foreign relations of Greece Foreign relations... This is the history of the European Union. ... This article or section should be merged with List of European Union-related topics The European Union has several institutions: The European Parliament The European Council The Council of the European Union (or Council of Ministers) The European Commission The European Court of Justice (incorporating the Court of First Instance... The European Union or EU is a supranational and international organization of 27 member states. ... Statistics in the European Union are collected by Eurostat. ...

Citizenship

In 1992 the Maastricht Treaty introduced the Citizenship of the European Union. Citizenship of the Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty signed in 1992. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union) was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993, under the Delors Commission. ...


This citizenship transfers from a former national citizenship — one holds the nationality of an EU member state and additionally becomes a "Citizen of the Union". Citizenship is membership in a political community (originally a city or town but now usually a country) and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen. ... In English usage, nationality is the legal relationship between a person and a country. ... EU member states and candidates Current members There are currently 25 member states in the European Union. ...


EU citizenship offers certain rights and privileges within the EU; in many areas EU citizens have the same or similar rights as native citizens in member states. Such rights granted to EU citizens include:

  • the right of abode
  • the right to vote and the right to stand in local and European elections
  • the right to work in any position (including national civil services with the exception of sensitive positions such as defence).

EU member states also use a common passport design, burgundy coloured with the name of the member state, national seal and the title "European Union" (or its translation). The right of abode refers to an individuals freedom from immigration control in a particular country. ... Suffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. ... The Byzantine civil service in action. ... For other Types of Travel Document, see Travel Document. ... Seal on envelope A seal is an impression printed on, embossed upon, or affixed to a document (or any other object) in order to authenticate it, in lieu of or in addition to a signature. ...


Union citizenship continues to gain in status and the European Court of Justice has stated that Union citizenship will be the "fundamental status of nationals of Member States" (see Case C-184/99 Rudy Grzelczyk v Centre Public d'Aide Sociale d'Ottignes-Louvain-la-Neuve, [2001] ECR I-6193, para 31). The European Commission has affirmed that Union citizenship should be the fundamental status of EU nationals. Official emblem of the European Court of Justice The Court of Justice of the European Communities, usually called the European Court of Justice (ECJ), is the highest court of the European Union (EU). ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ...


Cultural policies of the European Union

Cultural cooperation in the European Union has become a community competency since its inclusion in 1992 in the Maastricht Treaty. Cultural cooperation in the European Union has become a community competency since its inclusion in 1992 in the Maastricht Treaty. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... The Maastricht Treaty (formally, the Treaty on European Union) was signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht between the members of the European Community and entered into force on 1 November 1993, under the Delors Commission. ...


Actions taken in the cultural area by the European Union include:

The European Union gave grants to 233 cultural projects in 2004. Culture 2000 is a 7-year European Union program, which has among its key objectives preserving and enhancing Europes cultural heritage. ... The European Capital of Culture is a city designated by the European Union for a period of one year during which it is given a chance to showcase its cultural life and cultural development. ... European Cultural Month is an event created by the European Union to promote culture. ... MEDIA Plus is a European Union programme designed to support the European Unions audio-visual industry. ...


The European Union has also launched a webportal dedicated to Europe and Culture, responding to the European Council's expressed desire to see the Commission and the member states "promote the networking of cultural information to enable all citizens to access European cultural content by the most advanced technological means." The European Council, informally called the European summit, is a meeting of the heads of state or government of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission. ... The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive body of the European Union. ...


Economy

If the European Union is regarded as a single economy, which it usually is not, it has the largest economy in the World. The EU set itself an objective under the Lisbon Strategy to make the European Union "the world's most dynamic and competitive economy" by the year 2010. In 2006, the European Union is the biggest economy in the world with 30,30% of GDP (World Bank, Total GDP 2005). ... The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan for the European Union. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...


The most widely used currency in the European Union is the euro, which is in use in 13 member states. All other member states, apart from Denmark and the United Kingdom which have special opt-outs, have committed to changing over to the euro once they have fulfilled the requirements needed to do so. The Stability and Growth Pact sets out the fiscal criteria to maintain for stability and convergence, but it has been breached by several members. For other uses, see Euro (disambiguation) or EUR (disambiguation). ... EU member states and candidates Current members There are currently 25 member states in the European Union. ... The Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) is an agreement by European Union member states related to their conduct of fiscal policy, to facilitate and maintain Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union. ... Look up stability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In the absence of a more specific context, convergence denotes the approach toward a definite value, as time goes on; or to a definite point, a common view or opinion, or toward a fixed or equilibrium state. ...


Educational policies of the European Union

EU-funded educational, vocational and citizenship-building programmes help more than 100,000 EU citizens each year take advantage of opportunities which the EU offers its citizens to live, study and work in other countries. These opportunities make a major contribution to cross-cultural understanding, personal development and the realisation of the EU’s full economic potential. EU-backed improvements in national education and training quality and compatibility between educational and vocational training systems facilitate individual mobility and are important for jobs and growth. In the European Union education is the responsibility of member states, and European Union institutions play only a minor role in this field. ...


According to Art. 149 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, the Community "shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States", through a wide range of actions, such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the European Union. The Treaty also contains a commitment to promote life-long learning for all citizens of the Union. Therefore, the Community has a complementary role to play: to add a European dimension to education, to help to develop quality education and to encourage life-long learning. All the recent European summits (from Lisbon 2000 on) underlined the contribution of education in setting up the "European knowledge society".


The European Union has recently worked on various harmonisation projects including the Bologna Process.


The purpose of the Bologna process is to create the European higher education area by harmonising academic degree standards and quality assurance standards throughout Europe. The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is the objective of the Bologna process - to create more comparable, compatible and coherent systems of higher education in Europe. ... A degree is any of a wide range of status levels conferred by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study. ... This article is 150 kilobytes or more in size. ...


Languages

The languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. Chameleon, a symbol of the multilingualism of the European Union. ...


They include the 23 official languages of the European Union plus many others.


EU policy is to encourage all its citizens to be multilingual; specifically, it encourages them to be able to speak two languages in addition to their mother tongue. The reason for this is not only to promote easier communication between Europeans, but also to encourage greater tolerance and respect for diversity. First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ...


A number of EU funding programmes actively promote language learning and linguistic diversity. The content of educational systems remains the responsibility of individual Member States. Further information can be found at Language Policy.


Politics

The European Union or EU is a supranational union of 27 European states. It has many activities, the most important being a common single market, consisting of a customs union, a single currency (adopted by 13 out of 27 member states), a Common Agricultural Policy and a Common Fisheries Policy. The European Union also has various initiatives to co-ordinate activities of the member states. The European Union or EU is a supranational and international organization of 27 member states. ...


The EU, considered as a unit, has the largest economy in the world, with a 2002 GDP of €9.613 trillion. The EU economy is expected to grow further over the next decade as more former communist countries join the union. There is also a trend of moving towards increased cooperation in terms of common defence and foreign policy.


The union has evolved over time from a primarily economic union to an increasingly political one. This trend is highlighted by the increasing number of policy areas that fall within EU competence: political power has tended to shift upwards from the Member States to the EU.


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
European Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (5223 words)
The European Union or the EU is an intergovernmental and supranational union of 25 European countries, known as member states.
Supporters of the European Union argue that the growth of the EU is a force for peace and democracy.
The European Communities are one of the three pillars of the European Union, being both the most important pillar and the only one to operate primarily through supranational institutions.
Encyclopedia: Enlargement of the European Union (1654 words)
The European Council, informally called the European summit, is a meeting of the heads of state or government of the European Union, and the President of the European Commission.
A European Union Directive is the (mutally binding) collective decision made by the member states, acting through their national Government Ministers in the Council of the European Union and the Parliament.
European integration is the process of political and economic (and in some cases social and cultural) integration of European states into a tighter bloc.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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