European Union

• organization of countries
  • economic integration and cooperation among its members
    • foreign policy, security and defence, judicial matters
  • headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium
  • established on November 1, 1993
    • Coal and steel community – 1951
    • European Community – 1967
    • Maastricht treaty EC => EU
  • 27 members
  • major bodies
    • European Commission
      • the highest administrative body
      • proposes policy and law to be discussed by the Council
    • Council of European Union
      • primary decision-making authority of the EU
      • each member country has a seat on the Council usually represented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs
      • voting power is based on the country’s population
    • European Parliament
      • controls EU’s budget, votes on new laws
    • European Court of Justice
    • European central bank
      • Economic and Monetary Union => Euro

Symbols

• Council of Europe (CoE) – first symbols for the continent of Europe
• flag
  • circle of twelve golden (yellow) stars on a blue background
  • represents the union of all the people of Europe
  • associated with EU, formerly the European Communities, first adopted by CoE in 1955
• anthem
  • 4th movement of Ludvik van Beethoven’s 9th symphony – The Ode to Joy
  • instrumental version only
• motto
  • united in diversity (In varietate concordia )
• European Day
  • 9th May
    • 1950 – Schuman declaration – proposal of sharing French and German coal and steel

EU and the Czech republic

• May 1, 2004
• each Czech citizen is now also a member of the EU
  • we can travel, stay or work in countries of EU
  • we don’t need international driving licence in EU countries
  • we can spend whole studies at European universities (although perfect knowledge of local language is required)