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The 1990s also saw the further development of the euro. 1 January 1994 saw the second stage of the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union begin with the establishment of the European Monetary Institute and at the start of 1999 the euro as a currency was launched and the European Central Bank was established. On 1 January 2002, notes ...
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of 27 member states that are located primarily in Europe. [9] [10] [11] The union has a total area of 4,233,255 km 2 (1,634,469 sq mi) and an estimated total population of over 449 million.
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 (named after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable democratic government that ...
On 23 June 2014, under the Greek EU Presidency, the Council of the European Union agreed to grant Albania candidate status, which was endorsed by the European Council a few days later. Following in the steps of countries joining the EU in 2004 , Albania has been extensively engaged with EU institutions, and joined NATO as a full member in 2009.
The history of the European Union – Europa; European Union Politics Timeline - Oxford University Press: European Union Politics Resource Centre; Archival material concerning the history of the European Union can be consulted at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence
The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is a trade agreement between countries in Central Europe and the Balkans, which works as a preparation for full European Union membership. As of 2013 [update] , it has 7 members: North Macedonia , Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina , Moldova , Montenegro , Serbia and the UNMIK (as Kosovo ).
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500–1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500). The first early European modern humans appear in the fossil record about 48,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic era.
All former participating countries had previously signed association agreements with the EU, so in fact CEFTA has served as a preparation for full European Union membership. [citation needed] Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia joined the EU on 1 May 2004, with Bulgaria and Romania following suit on 1 January 2007.