BRUSSELS, May 1: Ten new member countries stepped up Saturday to join the European Union and swell its ranks to 25 states, making it the third largest population bloc in the world after China and India, with more than 450 million inhabitants.
Following is a portrait of the new Europe, stretching from the Atlantic to the Baltic and from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean:
GEOGRAPHY: The European Union has a surface area of 3,691,214 square kilometres (1,425,000 square miles) and covers 25 countries in western and eastern Europe, with the majority of the new members from the former Soviet eastern bloc as well as the Mediterranean island states of Cyprus and Malta.
Its 25 members now are Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.
POPULATION: 455 million. Germany is the most populous nation with 82.5 million inhabitants, Malta the smallest with a mere 387,000.
CAPITAL: The Union has no designated capital city, but Brussels is the de facto administrative centre, being home to the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European parliamentary commissions. The European Parliament sits in the French city of Strasbourg while Luxembourg is the seat of the European Court of Justice and parliamentary offices.
DEMOGRAPHY: In 2003, Ireland could boast the highest birthrate in the EU with 15.5 live births per 1,000 head of population, followed by France (12.7) and the Netherlands (12.6). Of the 10 new members, Cyprus and Malta have the highest birthrates with 11.1 and 10 respectively.
The life expectancy in the two island nations (76 for men, 81 for women) most closely approximates the current EU average of 75.8 and 81.9 respectively, while in Lithuania the figures fall to 64.8 and 76. Life expectancy in Poland is 70.4 for men and 78.3 for women, while in the Czech Republic men can expect to live to 72.1 and women to 78.7
LANGUAGES: Twenty official languages will be spoken in the EU, compared to 11 in the 15-member Union, namely Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
The nine new languages are Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovakian and Slovene.
RELIGION: Predominently Christian. The Roman Catholic faith is widely practised as are various Protestant denominations, Anglican, Calvinist and Lutheran, notably in northern Europe, as well as Greek Orthodox in Cyprus and Greece and Russian Orthodox in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. But there are also important Muslim communities in several countries, notably France, where although 80 percent of the population are considered Roman Catholic, Islam is the second largest faith, with between four and five million practising Muslims. There are also more than three million Muslims in Germany, more than half-a-million in Spain and more than 400,000 in Belgium.
POLITICS: All member states are governed by parliamentary democracy. There are, however, seven constitional monarchies which nevertheless rely on parliamentary government: Belgium, Britain, Denmark, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
ECONOMY: The combined wealth of the new member states in 2002 showed a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 444 billion euros, around 4.8 percent of the total wealth of the current EU. With a GDP of 15,080 euros per capita, Cyprus is the only new member to surpass that of the two poorest nations in the existing Union, Greece (12,880 euros) and Portual (12,513). Poland, the largest of the new member states, lags a long way behind with a GDP per capita of 5,290 euros, which is a fifth of that of Germany (25,590) and almost a tenth of the of the wealthiest member state, Luxembourg (50,190).
HISTORY: In January 1949, France, Britain and the Benelux countries agree to set up the Council of Europe. They ask Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Norway and Switzerland to help them prepare the statute.
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands establish the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) on April 18, 1951, creating the foundation for a common market in the coal and steel industry. The six sign the Treaty of Rome establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) on March 25, 1957, with the aim of gradually forming a common agricultural and industrial market.
The ECSC, EEC and the European Atomic Community (Euratom) merge under a single organisation, the European Community (EC), in July 1967 and a customs union is established the following year.
Britain, Denmark and Ireland become members of the EC in January 1973 and the European Monetary System enters into force in March 1979, a first step towards a single European currency.
Greece becomes the 10th member of the EC in January 1981 and Spain and Portugal accede in January 1986.
In June 1993, four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Copenhagen summit establishes political and economic criteria for eastern and central European candidates to join the EC and in November the same year, the Treaty of Maastricht, signed in February 1992, comes into force, transforming the EC into the European Union.
Austria, Finland and Sweden join in January 1995, completing the current 15-member EU. In March 1995, the Schengen agreement removing passport checks on EU borders comes into force but Britain and Ireland opt out.
The single European currency, the euro, is launched in January 1999 and becomes the sole legal currency in 12 of the 15 countries, known as the "euro zone".
The December 2000 Treaty of Nice summit sets out timeframe and reforms necessary for enlargement from 15 to 25 states and the 10 incoming members sign accession treaties in the shadow of the Acropolis in Athens in April 2003.-AFP
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