User:Alice/Kitchen/EU

The European Union was motivated by the catastrophe of the Second World War. The idea of "European integration" was developed to prevent such a disastrous war from happening again. The idea was first proposed by the French foreign minister Robert Schuman in a speech in 1950, which resulted in the first agreements in 1951 that formed the basis for the European Union.

There are at least four groups of countries in Europe that overlap but are not identical: Here is a table showing membership of these 4 groups:
 * The European Union (EU), a partial political and customs union (which Croatia will join on 1 July 2013)
 * The Eurozone, countries using the common European currency, the Euro
 * The Schengen Agreement, countries using common visas and immigration controls
 * The Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA), which entered into force on 1 January 1994, brings together the 27 EU Member States and the three EEA EFTA States of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway — in a single market, referred to as the "Internal Market". The EEA Agreement also states that when a country becomes a member of the EU, it shall also apply to become party to the EEA Agreement, thus leading to an enlargement of the EEA. The EEA used to include Switzerland and most countries' visa regimes treat Swiss passport holders as if Switzerland was still an EEA member.

3 The first symbol is the letter code to be shown on the rear of vehicles and the second is the internet top level domain symbol.