European Union

It is a supernational and Intergovernmental union of 27 states
Established in 1992 by the Treaty of EU – The Maastricht Treaty
It is the de facto successor of the six member European Economic Community founded in 1957 (The Treaty of Rome)
The Treaty of Paris – 1951 had the foundation for EU – European Coal and Steel Community of West Germany, Italy, Benelex and France – this changed to European Economic Comm and then to European Comm.

EU Institutions:

European Parliament
European Council
Council of the European Union – the legislative branch apart from the EU parliament
European Central Bank – 13 member states with Euro (estd in 1998 and HQ in Frankfurt)
European Commission – acts as an executive
The European Court of Justice – Luxembourg

The seat of the European Commission is in Brussels with the President – Jose Manuel Barroso

European Parliament Head – Hans Gert Pottering, and the seat is in Strasbourg

Council of the European Union, Head – Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Sectretariat of the European Parliament – Luxembourg

President of the European Council – Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany

High Representative of the CSFP – Javier Solana

Seat of the European council at present – Germany

Commissioner for Trade for the EU bloc in WTO – Peter Mendelson

Members of the EU:

France
Italy
Germany
Luxembourg
Belgium
Netherlands
Denmark
UK
Ireland
Greece
Portugal
Spain
Austria
Sweden
Finland
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta Poland, Slovekia, Slovenia (all these added in 2004)
Romania and Bulgaria (joined in 2007)

Enlargement Candidates:

Turkey
Croatia
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Pillars of the Treaty of Maastricht:

European Communities
The Common Foreign and Security Policy – CFSP (it acknowledges NATO responsible for the territorial defence and Peace keeping in Europe)
Justice and Home Affairs

ERASMUS program for Higher Education

Bologna Process for Higher Education

Global Positioning System – Galileo – Global Navigation Satellite System – to be built by EU and launched by the European Space Agency (ESA is a non EU organization and so is the EFTA)