The European Union is composed of a total of 28 states, partners to work together on issues of common interest and with the main goal of a prosperous and secure, with its own voice on the world stage Europe. Spain is a member of the EU since 1986.

 EU origins

The European project was born from the desire to overcome the conflicts between nations that led to two world wars bloody. In 1958, France, Germany, Italy and the three Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg) established the European Economic Community, origin of the current European Union, which was formally established in 1993.

EU treaties

The European Union is governed by a series of treaties that are negotiated in Conferences between the various governments and must be ratified by all member states before entering into force. The main ones are the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, also known as the Treaty of Rome (1957) and the Maastricht Treaty or Treaty of Maastricht (1992). Both have been modified through additional treaties like Amsterdam (1997), Nice (2001) and the Lisbon (2007), which entered into force on December 1, 2009.

European Institutions

The European Union has seven basic institutions that ensure its operation on a day to day:

An integrated by the Heads of State and Government of the Member States called European Council which marks the strategic direction governing council; an executive body known as the European Commission to implement the Council’s agenda by developing legislative proposals, budget management and implementation of common policies; a decision-making council in which the Member States are represented at ministerial level and sector-called EU Council approving the legislative proposals of the Commission in co-decision with the European Parliament, elected by universal suffrage; a European central bank, the ECB, which controls monetary policy for the euro area; judges who oversee the uniform application of European standards and conform the Court of Justice of the EU, and a court which audits EU finances known as the European Court of Auditors.

Source: Euroefe