The European Union today

This Library Note provides a broad outline of the history and development of the European Union. It explains the key treaties that led to the formation of the EU, describes the enlargement of the Union, gives a brief overview of the major European institutions and provides a short description of the EU budget. The Note concludes by presenting a selection of key statistics comparing the EU to the US, Japan, China and Russia and a selection of key indicators for each of the current EU member states and candidate states.

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