On November 1, 1993, the European Union was officially born. The founding countries of the European Union are France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The European Union has 28 member states. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg are the founding members and formed an alliance in 1951. Since then, Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom (including Gibraltar) (1973), Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), Austria, Finland, and Sweden (1995) have become EU member states.

On May 1, 2004, the EU achieved its largest enlargement in history, with ten countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia joining the EU at the same time. . On January 1, 2007, Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. On July 1, 2013, Croatia joined the Union.

In addition, the EU also launched accession negotiations with Iceland; listed Turkey, Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, and Serbia as EU candidate countries; and signed the Stability and Association Agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Extended information:

Purpose:

Promote peace, pursue a prosperous life for citizens, achieve sustainable social and economic development, ensure basic values, and strengthen international cooperation.

Judging from its content, the EU Constitution Treaty is a reorganization and compilation of its basic treaties based on the new development situation of the EU, and some of the original contents have been reformed.

About 80% of the text of the Constitutional Treaty repeats or reorganizes existing treaty provisions and is the inheritance of existing EU treaties. Only about 20% of the content is innovative provisions, among which the EU’s decision-making Significant changes have been made in methods and institutional settings. The main manifestations are:

1. Granting legal personality to the EU

Article I-6 of the Constitution stipulates that the Union should have legal personality. The EU Minister of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission establish various beneficial cooperation with various countries and international organizations on behalf of the EU. The EU delegation, under the leadership of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, works closely with the diplomatic missions of member states to carry out work on behalf of the EU. The EU can conclude agreements in its own name with third countries and international organizations and bring proceedings before national or international courts.

2. Reform the decision-making voting mechanism

The Constitution has abolished the one-vote veto system in the past 20 areas and replaced it with an effective majority voting system in most areas to ensure In the future, the EU's decision-making process will not be stagnant because of the different opinions of individual countries.

According to the provisions of the treaty, in most cases, the so-called majority means that more than half of the participating countries support a certain decision and can represent more than two-thirds of the total EU population.

If the constitution does not require the Council of the European Union or the Council of Ministers to make decisions based on the proposals of the European Commission, or the Council of the European Union or the Council of Ministers does not make decisions based on the motions of the EU Foreign Ministers.

The required majority is defined as a two-thirds majority of participating countries and can represent more than three-fifths of the EU population, but in the same foreign affairs and security defense, taxation, In areas such as social security, each member state still retains veto power and autonomy.

Baidu Encyclopedia-European Union