The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) is a regional trade organization and free trade area consisting of four European states: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The organization operates in parallel with the European Union (EU), and all four member states participate in the European Single Market and are part of the Schengen Area. They are not, however, party to the European Union Customs Union.
The euro area, commonly called the eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 20 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies.
The presidency of the Council of the European Union is responsible for the functioning of the Council of the European Union, which is the co-legislator of the EU legislature alongside the European Parliament. It rotates among the member states of the EU every six months. The presidency is not an individual, but rather the position is held by a national government. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the "president of the European Union". The presidency's function is to chair meetings of the council, determine its agendas, set a work program and facilitate dialogue both at Council meetings and with other EU institutions. The presidency is currently, as of August 2023, held by Spain.
The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria, which require a stable democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament must agree to any enlargement. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. This term is also used to refer to the intensification of co-operation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual harmonisation of national laws.
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).
The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity – self-designation ENISA from the abbreviation of its original name – is an agency of the European Union. It is fully operational since September 1, 2005. The Agency is located in Athens, Greece and has offices in Brussels, Belgium and Heraklion, Greece.
Switzerland is not a member state of the European Union (EU). It is associated with the Union through a series of bilateral treaties in which Switzerland has adopted various provisions of European Union law in order to participate in the Union's single market, without joining as a member state. All but one of Switzerland's neighbouring countries are EU member states.
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their own sovereignty through the institutions of the European Union in certain aspects of government. State governments must agree unanimously in the Council for the union to adopt some policies; for others, collective decisions are made by qualified majority voting. These obligations and sharing of sovereignty within the EU make it unique among international organisations, as it has established its own legal order which by the provisions of the founding treaties is both legally binding and supreme on all the member states. A founding principle of the union is subsidiarity, meaning that decisions are taken collectively if and only if they cannot realistically be taken individually.
Miroslav Lajčák is a Slovak politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In addition, Lajčák also served as President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 72nd session from 2017 until 2018.
The Salzburg Forum (SF) is a Central European security partnership of Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Member states cooperate in areas of police cooperation, illegal immigration, witness protection, fight against drugs, traffic safety and other areas of internal security. They also focus on positions coordination and advancing common interests in the European Union in the area of Home Affairs. At least two conferences of interior ministers per year are held. As a rule, three SF ministerial meetings are held per year. One meeting takes place in the country holding the presidency and one further meeting is usually held in summer in Austria. In addition, ministers regularly meet in the margins of EU Council meetings.
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished passports and many other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and justice policy of the European Union (EU), it mostly functions as a single jurisdiction under a common visa policy for international travel purposes. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement and the 1990 Schengen Convention, both signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.
Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) is a regional co-operation format that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden. Under NB8, regular meetings are held of the Baltic and Nordic countries' Prime Ministers, Speakers of Parliaments, Foreign Ministers, branch ministers, Secretaries of State and political directors of Foreign Ministries, as well as expert consultations where regional issues and current international topics are reviewed.
Mariya Ivanova Gabriel is a Bulgarian politician and a member of the GERB party, serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria and Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2023. She served as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth between December 2019 and May 2023 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2017.
The 2016 Warsaw Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was the 27th formal meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland, on 8 and 9 July 2016.
Victor Negrescu is a Romanian politician of the Social Democratic Party. He is a Member of European Parliament and he was Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the government of Romania between 2017 and 2018. Since 2007, he is the president and national coordinator of the Romanian network of PES activists.
The ninth European Parliament was elected during the 2019 elections and is slated to remain in session until the forthcoming 2024 elections.
The European Youth Goals are a collection of 11 interlinked goals representing young people's vision for youth policy in the European Union (EU). The European Youth Goals were developed during the 6th cycle of the EU Youth Dialogue. The European Youth Goals were included in the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027.
Spain currently holds the presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is scheduled to hold a six-month term covering the second half of 2023. The presidency is the first of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, scheduled to be followed by the presidency of Belgium and that of Hungary. It is the fifth time Spain has held the presidency.
Austria held the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the second half of 2018. The presidency was the last of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, which began with the presidency of Estonia, followed by that of Bulgaria. It was the third time Austria had held the presidency.
Bulgaria held the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of 2018. The presidency was the second of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, which began with the presidency of Estonia, and was followed by that of Austria. It was the first time Bulgaria had held the presidency. The motto that was chosen for the presidency was "United we stand strong".
Estonian prime minister Jüri Ratas at the opening concert of the Estonian presidency in Tallinn, 29 June 2017
