European Union (歐盟)
The European Union (EU) is a political and
economic community of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Europe.
The EU creates a single market
by a system of laws which apply in all member states, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and
capital (資金). It maintains a common trade policy, agricultural and fisheries policies, and a regional development policy. In 1999 the EU introduced a common
currency (貨幣), the Euro (歐羅), which has
been adopted by fifteen member states. It has also developed a role in foreign policy, and in justice and home
affairs.
To join the EU, a country must meet the Copenhagen (哥本哈根) criteria,
defined at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council. These require a stable democracy which
respects human rights and the rule of law;
a functioning market economy capable of competition within the EU; and the
acceptance of the obligations of membership, including EU law. Evaluation of a country's fulfilment of the criteria is the responsibility of the European Council.
With almost 500 million citizens, the EU generates an
estimated 31% share of the world's nominal GDP (國民生產總值) (US$16.6 trillion) in 2007.
The
EU has 23 official and working languages:
Bulgarian (保加利亞語), Czech (捷克語), Danish (丹麥語), Dutch (荷蘭語), English, Estonian
(愛沙尼亞語), Finnish
(芬蘭語), French,
German,
Greek, Hungarian (匈牙利語), Italian,
Irish (愛爾蘭語), Latvian (拉脫維亞語), Lithuanian (立陶宛語), Maltese
(馬爾他語), Polish
(波蘭語), Portuguese (葡萄牙語), Romanian
(羅馬尼亞語), Slovak
(斯洛伐克語), Slovenian (斯洛文尼亞語), Spanish
and Swedish (瑞典語). Important documents, such as legislation,
are translated into every official language. The European Parliament (國會) provides translation into all languages for documents and its plenary
(全體) sessions. Some institutions use only a handful of
languages as internal working languages. Language policy
is the responsibility of member states, but EU institutions promote the
learning of other languages.
German
is the most widely spoken mother tongue (about 88.7 million people as of 2006), followed by
English, French and Italian. English
is by far the most spoken foreign language at over half (51%) of the
population, with German and French following. 56% of European citizens are able
to engage in a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue.
Euro
The euro (currency sign:
€;
banking code:
EUR) is the official currency of the European Union's
Eurozone,
which currently consists of 15 states (Austria
(奧地利), Belgium
(比利時), Cyprus (塞浦路斯), Finland
(芬蘭), France, Germany,
Greece
(希臘), Ireland (愛爾蘭), Italy, Luxembourg
(盧森堡), Malta (馬爾他), the Netherlands
(荷蘭), Portugal
(葡萄牙), Slovenia
(斯洛文尼亞), Spain). It is the single currency for more than
320 million Europeans. Including
areas using currencies pegged to the euro, the euro directly affects
close to 500 million people worldwide. With more than €610 billion in circulation as of December 2006
(equivalent to US$802 billion at the exchange rates at the time), the euro is
the currency with the highest combined value of cash in circulation in the
world, having surpassed the U.S. dollar.
A special euro currency sign (€) was designed after a public survey had
narrowed the original ten proposals down to two. The European Commission then chose the
final design. The eventual winner
was a design created by the Belgian Alain Billiet.
The official story of the design
history of the euro sign is disputed by Arthur Eisenmenger, a former chief graphic
designer for the EEC, who claims to have created it as a generic
symbol of
Think more:
1. How does EU affect our daily life?
2. Should Asian countries form a union?
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/