Which countries make up the European Union? List of EU Member States

Source:百度百科

What does the EU stand for? What kind of organization is the EU?

European Union (German: Europäische Union)French: UnioThe European Union (EU), headquartered in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, emerged from the European Community. It was founded by six member states: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Today, it comprises 27 member countries and has 24 official languages.

In December 1991, the European Community's Maastricht Summit adopted the Treaty on European Union, commonly referred to as the Maastricht Treaty. On November 1, 1993, the Maastricht Treaty officially came into effect, marking the formal birth of the European Union.

The EU's treaties have been revised multiple times, operating under the Lisbon Treaty. Politically, all member states are parliamentary democracies (as per the 2008 Economist Democracy Index), economically they represent the world's second-largest economic entity (including Germany, France, and Italy as members of the G8), and militarily, all but the six countries of Sweden, Finland, Ireland, Austria, Malta, and Cyprus (the first five being internationally recognized as neutral) are members of NATO.

  List of the 27 EU Member States>>

Expansion History

The European Union consists of 27 member states, with France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg as the founding members, who formed an alliance in 1951.

In 1973, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom (including Gibraltar) joined the European Union.

Following the democratization of domestic politics, Greece joined the EU in 1981, followed by Spain and Portugal in 1986.

Following the Cold War, with the easing of geopolitical tensions, Austria, Finland, and Sweden concurrently joined the European Union in 1995.

On May 1, 2004, the European Union achieved its largest-ever expansion, welcoming ten new member states: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

On January 1, 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union.

July 1, 2013, Croatia joined the Union.

Additionally, the EU has initiated accession negotiations with Iceland; designated Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia as EU candidate countries; and signed the "Stability and Association Agreement" with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

January 31, 2020, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union.

Current member states

In alphabetical order:

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Croatia

Czechia

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Netherlands

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden