Member countries of the European Union – Virtual Workers of America

The European Union is an inter-community society of countries of the Old Continent that appeared primitively after the end of the Second World War and whose objective was to create a space for collaboration and assistance between the different countries, similar to what the European Union had attempted. League of Nations or what the UN would do. It currently has 28 member countries and works through international institutions such as the European Parliament or the European Central Bank.

Although the defeat of the Axis forces would be the seed from which the EU would sprout, it was the Cold War that really propelled it. The economic power that the Soviet Union could exercise over the Western European countries and the fear of military aggression led to the emergence of mutual aid pacts and treaties between the countries of the capitalist bloc. Following Winston Churchill’s idea of the “United States of Europe” in 1947, the Western European Union was formalized a year later as a military aid pact in case of Soviet attack. In 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) would be formed, predecessor of the current EU and which already included economic and commercial issues.

In 1957, the same six countries that made up the ECSC signed the Treaty of Rome and a year later the European Economic Community was born. The following decades served for many other countries to see the potential that an agreement of this magnitude represented, especially due to the commercial advantages and economic growth experienced by the member countries. By 1986, the number of countries integrated into what would become the European Union had doubled and international and community politics were becoming increasingly important.

The project of a united and supportive Europe would reach its maximum exponent in the 1990s, after the disappearance of the Soviet Union, and in the early 2000s. The commitment of the countries increased, common policies were adopted in areas such as the environment environment, the borders between member countries were eliminated (or blurred) and a single currency, the euro, was progressively applied. However, the economic crisis that broke out in 2008 was experienced very harshly in European countries and this deteriorated the image and the project of the EU.

The rise of extreme right-wing parties, authoritarian and eurosceptic populism, to which should be added the case of the United Kingdom and Brexit, pose a huge challenge for the European Union that could topple everything that has already been built.

Germany

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Berlin.Currency: Euro.It is one of the six countries that have participated in economic cooperation since 1951 and that founded the European Union in 1958. When the EU was founded, only the Federal Republic of Germany entered it And it would not be until after the reunification of the two Germanys in 1990.

Belgium

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Brussels.Currency: Euro.Another of the founding countries. Brussels was the capital of the Western European Union (WEU) since 1949 and in 1992 it was officially recognized as the capital of the EU because it is there, among many other international institutions, the European Parliament.

France

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Paris.Currency: Euro.A member of the WEU in the first place and founder of the European Union, France is one of the most important states within the EU. Since 1958, France has presided over the Council of the European Union on up to 12 separate occasions.

Italy

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Rome.Currency: Euro.The Marshall Plan allowed a speedy recovery to the Mediterranean country and made it one of the six original members. Even with this historical background, a survey carried out by Parlemeter in 2018 pointed out that the Italian population is the most eurosceptic in the entire European Union (only 44% of the population would vote in favor of remaining in the EU).

Luxembourg

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Luxembourg.Currency: Euro.In addition to the European Union, it was also a promoter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In Luxembourg (capital of the country with which it shares its name) is the Court of Justice of the EU, the Court of Auditors of the EU, the European Investment Bank and the General Secretariat of the European Parliament.

Netherlands

Year of entry: 1958.Capital: Amsterdam.Currency: Euro.The last founding country of the European Union was for many years one of the most stable and highly valued economies on the continent. Despite the fact that the Netherlands is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the common market policy, its last governments have described the EU as an “old-fashioned union” and have criticized excessive support for southern countries.

Denmark

Year of entry: 1973.Capital: Copenhagen.Currency: Danish krone.In 1973 the first incorporations to the European Union would take place since its creation and among them was Denmark, one of the strongest economic powers of the Old Continent. When the creation of a common currency was raised, Denmark negotiated an opt-out clause to be able to continue using the Danish krone, which is equivalent to €0.13.

Ireland

Year of entry: 1973.Capital: Dublin.Currency: Euro.The Republic of Ireland has been independent from the United Kingdom since 1922 and a member of the European Union since 1973 (the same year its old enemy entered). Ireland is one of the few countries on the European continent that negotiated an opt-out clause to stay out of the Schengen Area.

United Kingdom

Year of entry: 1973.Capital: London.Currency: Pound sterling.After joining the United Kingdom, it became one of the most influential countries within the Union. He signed an agreement not to use the euro or be included in the Schengen Area and in 2016, after a referendum, he began the process to leave the European Union in the so-called Brexit.

Greece

Year of entry: 1981.Capital: Athens.Currency: Euro.Greece was the only country that entered the European Union in 1981. During the global economic crisis of 2008, the economic situation of Greece suffered such a collapse that it had to be rescued from urgency. The Mediterranean country went through 8 years of recession and cuts until it paid its debt and came out of it much impoverished.

Spain

Year of entry: 1986.Capital: Madrid.Currency: Euro.Spain was not eligible to become a member of the European Union until the end of the Franco dictatorship, a democracy was established and other requirements, mainly economic, were met. The year prior to its entry into the EU, Spain managed to expand its total exports up to 8 times and its imports, both from the European Union and from other countries, up to 7 times.

Portugal

Year of entry: 1986.Capital: Lisbon.Currency: Euro.The Portuguese country has a deep relationship with Spain, not only due to geographical proximity or their brief common past, but also due to their similarities. Portugal had also emerged from a military dictatorship with the Carnation Revolution and had to undergo a democratic transition while being included in the European community. On the 30th anniversary of its membership of the EU, the government declared that time corresponded to the most prosperous in Portugal’s recent history.

Austria

Year of entry: 1995.Capital: Vienna.Currency: Euro.By fate, Austria could not enter the European Union until 1995, once the Soviet Union had already been dissolved. This is due to the Staatsvertrag treaty (1955) which recognized the independence of Austria and prevented it from joining Germany politically or commercially. The Soviet Union used this previous treaty to keep Austria out of the European Union and kept it out until its dissolution.

Finland

Year of entry: 1995.Capital: Helsinki.Currency: Euro.The Nordic country entered the European Union at the same time as Austria and Sweden. That same year, Norway was also going to enter, but its population voted against it in a referendum. Despite being the fifth largest country, it only has 5.47 million inhabitants (1.8% of the total population of Europe).

Sweden

Year of entry: 1995.Capital: Stockholm.Currency: Swedish krona.Sweden was the last country to enter in 1995 and did so after a tight referendum in which the “yes” vote won with 52.2% of the vote. The Swedish economy is largely based on exports, of which 60% is destined for other EU countries, and is considered by the World Economic Forum as the second most competitive country after Switzerland.

Czech Republic

Year of entry: 2004. Capital: Prague. Currency: Czech crown. By the early 2000s, the European Union had already had time to demonstrate the benefits of the community economic space and, therefore, in 2004 the entry took place from 10 new countries, including the Czech Republic. Although the country led tough negotiations, it has ended up being one of the members most committed to the EU project.

Cyprus

Year of entry: 2004.Capital: Nicosia.Currency: Euro.In 1974, after a failed coup attempt by groups close to Greece, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus and took over a third of the island. The negotiations for Cyprus to enter the European Union were complicated by this division, since the EU did not recognize the Turkish government and considered the entire island as a member. In 2017 the conflict began to near its end.

Slovakia

Year of entry: 2004.Capital: Bratislava.Currency: Euro.Emerged in 1993 from the separation of Czechoslovakia, this Eastern European country entered the European Union after the population voted in favor in a referendum that required a minimum of 50 % of the census to be considered valid. During its first years as a member of the EU, when the economic crisis began to approach, Slovakia was one of the countries that grew the most.

Slovenia

Year of entry: 2004. Capital: Ljubljana.Currency: Euro.Since its union in 2004, Slovenia has played a key connecting role. As had happened historically, Slovenia’s geopolitical position in Eastern Europe and its relations with Western countries made Slovenia a key country for delimiting the Schengen area and acting as an intermediary with possible future members.

Estonia

Year of entry: 2004.Capital: Tallinn.Currency: Euro.This small Baltic country joined the European Union along with its neighbors Latvia and Lithuania. After having belonged to the Soviet Union for more than half a century, both politicians and the population saw the entry into the EU…