The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. The Union has a total area of 4,233,255 km2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of over 449 million. The EU has often been described as a sui generis political entity combining the characteristics of both a federation and a confederation.
The European Council is a collegiate body that defines the overall political direction and priorities of the European Union. The European Council is part of the executive of the European Union (EU), beside the European Commission. It is composed of the heads of state or of government of the EU member states, the President of the European Council, and the President of the European Commission. The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy also takes part in its meetings.
The European Commission (EC) is the primary executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission headed by a President. It includes an administrative body of about 32,000 European civil servants. The commission is divided into departments known as Directorates-General (DGs) that can be likened to departments or ministries each headed by a Director-General who is responsible to a Commissioner.
The Western European Union was the international organisation and military alliance that succeeded the Western Union (WU) after the 1954 amendment of the 1948 Treaty of Brussels. The WEU implemented the Modified Brussels Treaty. During the Cold War, the Western Bloc included the WEU member-states, plus the United States and Canada, as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
A European School is a type of international school emphasising a multilingual and multicultural pedagogical approach to the teaching of nursery, primary and secondary students, leading to the European Baccalaureate as their secondary leaving qualification. Each European School is set up, financed, and operated by the international organisation, the "European Schools", controlled jointly by the member states of the European Union and the European Commission. The schools prioritise, for enrolment purposes, the children of EU staff.
The Treaty of Brussels, also referred to as the Brussels Pact, was the founding treaty of the Western Union (WU) between 1948 and 1954, when it was amended as the Modified Brussels Treaty (MTB) and served as the founding treaty of the Western European Union (WEU) until its termination in 2010. The treaty provided for the organisation of military, economic, social and cultural cooperation among member states as well as a mutual defence clause.
The European School, Brussels II is one of thirteen European Schools in the European Union (EU), and of four in Brussels. It is situated on Avenue Oscar Jespers, in the Brussels suburb of Woluwe-Saint-Lambert.
Albania is on the current agenda for future enlargement of the European Union (EU). It applied for EU membership on 28 April 2009, and has since June 2014 been an official candidate for accession. The Council of the European Union decided in March 2020 to open accession negotiations with Albania.
The European School, Brussels I (ESB1) is a European School located in Uccle, Brussels, Belgium, and Forest, Brussels, Belgium. Originally the second of the European Schools to be founded, the European School, Brussels I, is today one of four in Brussels, and thirteen such schools across the European Union (EU). It is an all-through school, which exists primarily to provide an education to children of EU staff and officials based in Brussels leading to the European Baccalaureate as their secondary leaving qualification. Its alumni include the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Boris Johnson.
On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became member states of the European Union (EU) in the fifth wave of EU enlargement.
The European School Karlsruhe, commonly known as ESK, is one of three European Schools in Germany and one of thirteen across the European Union (EU). Founded in 1962, the school prioritises, for enrolment purposes, the children of staff of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre for Nuclear Safety and Security based nearby. Children of non-EU staff may enrol provided there is capacity. ESK is an all-through school catering for nursery, primary and secondary pupils, culminating in the awarding of the European Baccalaureate as its secondary leaving qualification.
The Western Union (WU), also referred to as the Brussels Treaty Organisation (BTO), was the European military alliance established between France, the United Kingdom (UK) and the three Benelux countries in September 1948 in order to implement the Treaty of Brussels signed in March the same year. Under this treaty the signatories, referred to as the five powers, agreed to collaborate in the defence field as well as in the political, economic and cultural fields.
The European School The Hague, or ESH is an Accredited European School offering nursery, primary and secondary education in 13 European languages, leading to the European Baccalaureate.
The European School of Strasbourg, or EES, is a public Accredited European School in Strasbourg, France. Founded in 2008, it is an all-through school, which offers a multicultural and multilingual education leading to the European Baccalaureate as its secondary leaving qualification.
The European School of Bruxelles-Argenteuil, also known as the EEBA, is a private, Accredited European School located on the grounds of the Château d'Argenteuil, in Waterloo, Wallonia, Belgium. Founded in 2016, the EEBA is a partnership between Brussels private school Lycée Molière, and the Scandinavian School of Brussels (SSB). The EEBA, through its partnership with the SSB, offers its students the International Baccalaureate as its secondary leaving qualification, with plans to also offer the European Baccalaureate in the near future. The school caters to nursery, primary and secondary students and is equipped with facilities for boarders aged 15 and up.
The European School, Brussels IV is one of the thirteen European Schools, and the fourth to be established within the city of Brussels, home to many European Union (EU) institutions. Opened in 2007, the school was initially based in the Brussels municipality of Forest, before moving to its purpose built campus in Laeken in 2012. The school combines nursery, primary and secondary education, with around 3,000 students enrolled at the start of the 2020–2021 academic year, spread over eight language sections (English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Estonian. The school prioritises the children of European Union staff for enrolment purposes, with others able to enrol provided there is capacity. Transport links to the school campus include Bockstael Station, which provides metro and suburban rail services.
The European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are two main treaty-based Western organisations for cooperation between member states, both headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Their natures are different and they operate in different spheres: NATO is a purely intergovernmental organisation functioning as a military alliance, which serves to implement article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty on collective territorial defence. The EU on the other hand is a partly supranational and partly intergovernmental sui generis entity akin to a confederation that entails wider economic and political integration. Unlike NATO, the EU pursues a foreign policy in its own right—based on consensus, and member states have equipped it with tools in the field of defence and crisis management; the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) structure.
The European Schools is an intergovernmental organisation, which has established, financed, and administered a small group of multilingual international schools, bearing the title "European School", which exist primarily to offer an education to the children of European Union (EU) staff; offers accreditation to other schools, bearing the title "Accredited European School", under national jurisdiction within EU member states to provide its curriculum; and oversees the provision of the secondary school leaving diploma, the European Baccalaureate.
An Accredited European School is a type of international school under national jurisdiction and financing, within the member states of the European Union, which have been approved, by the Board of Governors of the international organisation "The European Schools", to offer its multilingual and multicultural curriculum and the European Baccalaureate. An Accredited European School differs from a European School, in that the latter is set up, administered and financed directly by the Board of Governors of the European Schools.
The European School of Paris-La Défense is a public Accredited European School in the business district of La Défense near Paris, France. Founded in 2019, it is an all-through school, which offers a multicultural and multilingual education leading to the European Baccalaureate as its secondary leaving qualification.
