In your books - match the European

Union (EU) member to its capital.

UK Poland

Malta
Berlin Rome
France Czech Republic
Budapest Lisbon
Germany Slovakia
Dublin Madrid

Spain Denmark Latvia Copenhagen Bucharest

Vienna Prague
Belgium Hungary Italy
Brussels Sofia

Austria Estonia Amsterdam Helsinki

Ireland Sweden Vilnius

Cyprus Warsaw Athens

Greece Lithuania Luxembourg Tallinn

London Paris
Netherlands Finland
Ljubljana Riga

Portugal Bulgaria Bratislava Valletta

Stockholm
Romania Luxembourg
Lefkosia

Slovenia
The 27 members of the European Union
What does the EU do?
A lot of what the EU does is about bringing
people in Europe closer together.

It tries to make it easier for Europeans to buy

and sell things to each other. This is done by
changing the rules that control trade.

The EU backs things like exchange visits that help ordinary

Europeans to understand what they all have in common.

These are the five aims the EU has set out to meet.

1. Promote economic and social progress.

Help people earn enough money and get treated fairly.

2. Speak for the European Union on the international scene.

By working as a group the EU hopes that Europe will be
listened to more by other countries.

3. Introduce European citizenship.

Anyone from a member state is a citizen of the EU and gets
four special rights.

4. Develop Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice.

Help Europeans to live in safety, without the threat of war.

5. Maintain and build on established EU law.

Make laws that protect peoples rights in the member
countries.

Divide your page into six

boxes.
In boxes 1 to 5 illustrate the
five aims of the EU.

In box 6 design a new

European Union Flag
How can you join the European Union?
 The European Union is a group of countries whose
governments work together. It's a bit like a club. To join you
have to agree to follow the rules and in return you get certain
benefits.

Each country has to pay money to be a member. They mostly

do this through taxes.

The EU uses the money to change the way people live and do
business in Europe.

Countries join because they think that they will benefit from the
changes the EU makes. Who's in the EU?

Belgium 1957
France 1957
Netherlands 1957
Germany 1957
Italy 1957
Luxembourg 1957
Denmark 1973
Ireland 1973
UK 1973
Greece 1981
Portugal 1986
Spain 1986
Austria 1995
Finland 1995 Write down three conditions
Sweden 1995
Hungary 2004 that countries should meet
Poland 2004
Czech Republic 2004
before becoming a part of
Slovak Republic 2004 the European Union.
Slovenia 2004
Estonia 2004
Latvia 2004
Lithuania 2004
Malta 2004
Cyprus 2004
Bulgaria 2007
Romania 2007
Croatia 2013

1. They must show that they treat

their people fairly, respect their
human rights and allow them to
vote in elections.

To join the EU countries
must abide by these three
rules.
2. They must show that their
economies are properly run. That
means the government is sensible
about the amount of money it
spends and does not interfere too
much in the way people do
business.

3. Countries may have to

make changes to their laws so
that they don't clash with the
laws of the EU.

How is it run?

These are some of the main parts of the EU.

The European Parliament

This makes laws and helps to

decide how much money the EU
should spend. It also checks
that all the other parts of the
EU are working fairly.

Members of the European

Parliament (MEPs) are elected
every five years. Anyone over
18 from a member country may
vote.

Council of the European Union

This is where the EU's big decisions are normally made.

It's like a school council, but instead of people from each year
there are people from each country.

Who turns up depends on what the council is talking about. If

they are talking about farms then the 25 ministers for farming
would go along, one from the government of each country.

The European Commission

The European Commission does the day-to-day work of

running the EU.

It does things like making sure that that the laws the European
Parliament passes are used properly.

The presidency

Every six months a different country gets the

presidency of the EU.

Jerzy Buzek