The European Union has a number of relationships with foreign states. According to the European Union's official site, and a statement by Commissioner Günter Verheugen, the aim is to have a ring of countries, sharing EU's democratic ideals and joining them in further integration without necessarily becoming full member states.
European integration is the process of industrial, economic, political, legal, social, and cultural integration of states wholly or partially in Europe, or nearby. European integration has primarily but not exclusively come about through the European Union and its policies.
The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is a foreign relations instrument of the European Union (EU) which seeks to tie those countries to the east and south of the European territory of the EU to the Union. These countries include some who seek to one day become either a member state of the European Union, or become more closely integrated with the European Union. The ENP does not apply to neighbours of the EU's outermost regions, specifically France's territories in South America, but only to those countries close to EU member states' territories in mainland Europe.
The European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) is a single market in aviation services.
International relations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine are shaped through the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement and the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA). Ukraine is a priority partner within the Eastern Partnership and the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The EU and Ukraine developed an increasingly close relationship, going beyond co-operation, to gradual economic integration and deepening of political co-operation. On 23 June 2022, the European Council granted Ukraine the status of a candidate for accession to the European Union.
Israel is an associated state of the European Union. The relations between the two are framed in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, and the Union for the Mediterranean.
EuroMed Rights, formerly the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network is a network of 68 human rights organisations, institutions and individuals based in 30 countries in Europe and the Mediterranean region. It was established in 1997 in response to the Barcelona Declaration, which led to the establishment of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership.
Accession of Montenegro to the European Union is on the agenda for future enlargement of the EU.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PAUfM), previously known as the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly (EMPA), established in Naples on 3 December 2003 by decision of the Ministerial Conference of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, is an institution of the Barcelona Process. The EMPA opened its proceedings in Vouliagmeni (Athens) on 22 and 23 March 2004. Its first Bureau comprises the Presidents of the Egyptian People's Assembly, the European Parliament (EP), the Tunisian Chamber of Deputies and the Greek Parliament.
Armenia and the European Union have maintained positive relations over the years. Both parties are connected through the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which was signed in 2017. Former Armenian foreign minister Eduard Nalbandyan expressed confidence that the new partnership agreement would "open a new page" in EU–Armenia relations. Meanwhile, the former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini concluded in June 2019, that Armenia–EU relations are on an "excellent" level. Should either Georgia or Turkey, who are candidates for EU membership, accede to the EU, Armenia will border the European Union.
The North–South Centre, officially the European Centre for Global Interdependence and Solidarity, is a Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe, the oldest political organisation of European states.
The Union for the Mediterranean is an intergovernmental organization of 43 member states from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin: the 27 EU member states and 16 Mediterranean partner countries from North Africa, Western Asia and Southern Europe. It was founded on 13 July 2008 at the Paris Summit for the Mediterranean, with an aim of reinforcing the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (Euromed) that was set up in 1995 as the Barcelona Process. Its general secretariat is located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
European Union–Kazakhstan relations are the international relations between the Republic of Kazakhstan and the common foreign policy and trade relations of the European Union.
ARLEM is a permanent, joint assembly, bringing together local and regional authorities from the three shores of the Mediterranean. This assembly is designed to provide an institutional framework to bring together CoR members and representatives of European associations involved in Euro-Mediterranean co-operation with their counterparts from the Mediterranean partners in a permanent joint body.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) is an international organization established in 2005 by the national parliaments of the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean region. It is the legal successor of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (CSCM), launched in the early 1990s.
Angelina Julietta Francisca Eichhorst is a European civil servant and since November 2024 the European Union Ambassador-designate to Egypt and the League of Arab States (LAS).
The Eurosphere or the European Empire is a concept centered around the European Union's sphere of influence, a term associated with the public intellectual Mark Leonard, Oxford University academic Jan Zielonka, the European Union Director-General for Politico-Military Affairs Robert Cooper and the former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso.
Mikheil Janelidze is a chairman of Center for European Governance & Economy. He is a former Georgian government official who served as Vice Prime Minister (2017–2018), Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015–2018), First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2015) and Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia (2011-2015).
EU Med, EuroMed 9, or MED9, which is also referred to as "Club Med" and "Med Group", is an alliance of nine Mediterranean and Southern European Union member states: Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. They are part of the Mediterranean Basin. All nine countries are states of the European Union, part of the eurozone, and all except Cyprus are part of the unbounded Schengen Area.
Egypt–European Union relations are the foreign relations between the country of Egypt and the European Union.
