The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states,[6] located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community.[7] With almost 500 million citizens, the EU combined generates an estimated 30% share (US$18.4 trillion in 2008) of the nominal gross world product.[8] The EU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states, ensuring the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital.[9] It maintains common policies on trade,[10] agriculture, fisheries[11] and regional development.[12] Sixteen member states have adopted a common currency, the euro, constituting the Eurozone. The EU has developed a limited role in foreign policy, having representation at the WTO, G8, G20 and at the UN. It enacts legislation in justice and home affairs, including the abolition of passport controls by an agreement between the member states which form the Schengen Area.[13] As an international organisation, the EU operates through a hybrid system of supranationalism and intergovernmentalism.[14][15][16] In certain areas, decisions are made through negotiation between member states, while in others, independent supranational institutions are responsible without a requirement for unanimity between member states. Important institutions and bodies of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Council, the European Court of Justice, and the European Central Bank. The European Parliament is elected every five years by member states' citizens, to whom the citizenship of the European Union is guaranteed. The EU originates from the European Coal and Steel Community formed among six countries in 1951 and the Treaty of Rome in 1957.[17][18][19] Since then, the EU has evolved through a process of enlargement, while new policy areas have been added to the remit of its institutions. After the end of the Second World War, moves towards European integration were seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism which had devastated the continent.[20] One such attempt to unite Europeans was the European Coal and Steel Community which, while having the modest aim of centralised control of the previously national coal and steel industries of its member states, was declared to be "a first step in the federation of Europe".[21] The originators and supporters of the Community include Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, Paul Henri Spaak and Alcide de Gasperi. The founding members of the Community were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.[22] In 1957, these six countries signed the Treaties of Rome which extended the earlier cooperation within the European Coal and Steel Community and created the European Economic Community, (EEC) establishing a customs union and the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) for cooperation in developing nuclear energy.[22] In 1967 the Merger Treaty created a single set of institutions for the three communities, which were collectively referred to as the European Communities (EC), although commonly just as the European Community.[23] In 1973 the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom.[24] Norway had negotiated to join at the same time but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum and so Norway remained outside. In 1979 the first direct, democratic elections to the European Parliament were held.[25] Greece joined in 1981, and Spain and Portugal in 1986.[26] In 1985 the Schengen Agreement led the way toward the creation of open borders without passport controls between most member states and some non-member states.[27] In 1986 the European flag began to be used by the Community[28] and the Single European Act was signed. In 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, the former East Germany became part of the Community as part of a newly united Germany.[29] With enlargement toward Eastern and Central Europe on the agenda, the Copenhagen criteria for candidate members to join the European Union were agreed. The European Union was formally established when the Maastricht Treaty came into force on 1 November 1993,[7] and in 1995 Austria, Sweden and Finland joined the newly established EU. In 2002, euro notes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 of the member states. Since then, the eurozone has increased to encompass sixteen countries, with Slovakia joining the eurozone on 1 January 2009. In 2004, the EU saw its biggest enlargement to date when Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary joined the Union.[30] On 1 January 2007, Romania and Bulgaria became the EU's newest members and Slovenia adopted the euro.[30] In December of that year European leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty which was intended to replace the earlier, failed European Constitution, which never came into force after being rejected by French and Dutch voters. However, uncertainty clouded the prospects of the Lisbon Treaty's coming into force as result of its rejection by Irish voters in June 2008. On 17 July 2009, the Parliament of Iceland agreed to formally apply for EU membership and to begin talks for an agreement to be put to a referendum to the Icelandic voters. On 23 July 2009 the Icelandic foreign minister formally submitted Iceland's application for membership to his Swedish counterpart (Sweden held the EU Presidency on this date). On 2 October 2009 the Irish voters approved the Lisbon Treaty with 67% of the votes ratifying the treaty from a total voter turnout of 58% of the electorate. With the approval by Czech President Klaus on 3 November 2009, the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by all countries and will go into effect on 1 December 2009. The European Union is composed of 27 sovereign Member States: 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.[31] Only six of these – France, (then-West) Germany, Italy, and the three already integrated Benelux countries; Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg – were members at the start, with membership having grown as countries willingly accede to the treaties and by doing so, pool sovereignty in exchange for representation in the institutions.[32] To join the EU a country must meet the Copenhagen criteria, defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council. These require a stable democracy that respects human rights and the rule of law; a functioning market economy capable of competition within the EU; and the acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law. Evaluation of a country's fulfilment of the criteria is the responsibility of the European Council.[33] No member state has ever left the Union, although Greenland (a territory of Denmark) withdrew in 1985. Until the Treaty of Lisbon, which comes into force 1 December 2009, the EU did not have a framework specifying how a country could exit the Union. There are three official candidate countries, Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Iceland are officially recognised as potential candidates.[34] Kosovo is also listed as a potential candidate but the European Commission does not list it as an independent country because not all member states recognise it as an independent country separate from Serbia.[35] Four Western European countries that have chosen not to join the EU have partly committed to the EU's economy and regulations: Iceland, which has now applied for membership, Liechtenstein and Norway, which are a part of the single market through the European Economic Area, and Switzerland, which has similar ties through bilateral treaties.[36][37] The relationships of the European microstates, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican include the use of the euro and other areas of co-operation.[38] The territory of the EU consists of the combined territories of its 27 member states with some exceptions, outlined below. The territory of the EU is not the same as that of Europe, as parts of the continent are outside the EU, such as Switzerland, Norway, European Russia, and Iceland. Some parts of member states are not part of the EU, despite forming part of the European continent (for example the Isle of Man and Channel Islands (two Crown Dependencies), and the Faroe Islands, a territory of Denmark). The island country of Cyprus, a member of the EU, is closer to Turkey than to mainland Europe and is often considered part of Asia.[39][40] Several territories associated with member states that are outside geographic Europe are also not part of the EU (such as Greenland, Aruba, the Netherlands Antilles, and all the non-European British overseas territories). Some overseas territories are part of the EU even though geographically not part of Europe, such as the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madeira, Lampedusa, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion, Ceuta and Melilla. As well, although being technically part of the EU,[41] EU law is suspended in Northern Cyprus as it is under the de facto control of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, a self-proclaimed state that is recognised only by Turkey. The EU's member states cover an area of 4,422,773 square kilometres (1,707,642 sq mi).[42] The EU is larger in area than all but six countries, and its highest peak is Mont Blanc in the Graian Alps, 4,807 metres (15,771 ft) above sea level. The landscape, climate, and economy of the EU are influenced by its coastline, which is 65,993 kilometres (41,006 mi) long. The EU has the world's second-longest coastline, after Canada. The combined member states share land borders with 19 non-member states for a total of 12,441 kilometres (7,730 mi), the fifth-longest border in the world.[15][43][44] Including the overseas territories of member states, the EU experiences most types of climate from Arctic to tropical, rendering meteorological averages for the EU as a whole meaningless. The majority of the population lives in areas with a Mediterranean climate (Southern Europe), a temperate maritime climate (Western Europe), or a warm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (Eastern Europe).[45]