The European Union (EU) is a political and monetary organization of European nations. Its members as of 2002 were Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. While member states retain their national governments, the EU promulgates transnational laws and treaties, has a unified agricultural policy, and has removed trade barriers between members. The EU uses a common currency, the euro. The EU represents about a quarter of the global economy, roughly equal to that of the United States.

The European Union developed gradually in the years after World War II. It began in 1957 as the European Economic Community, or EEC, which originally included France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The EEC was superceded by the European Community, or EC, in 1967. The principal aim of the EC was to foster free trade among...