European Union (EU) is an organization of 27 European countries that promotes cooperation among its members. The members cooperate in many areas, including politics and economics. They have achieved the most success in creating a single economic market without internal barriers to trade and investment. The union's members are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The union's main offices are in Brussels, Belgium.
The European Union has evolved from economic cooperation that began among Western European countries in the early 1950's. These countries eventually cooperated in economic affairs as members of the European Community (EC). In 1993, the EC members extended their cooperation into the areas of Justice and Home Affairs and a Common Foreign and Security Policy. Justice and Home Affairs concerns cooperation in such areas as law enforcement and immigration. Through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the nations deal with military and other foreign policy matters. The European Union was officially created when cooperation was extended to these two new areas. The three areas of cooperation are sometimes referred to as the union's three "pillars."
The European Union is a major economic unit. Together, its members have more people than the United States. In addition, the total value of the goods and services produced by its members exceeds that of the goods and services produced by the United States. The combined value of the union's imports and exports is greater than that of any single country in the world. The United States is the union's main trading partner.
