European Union

The European Union is a political supranational and intergovernmental organization sui generis, with characteristics of both a joint federation of countries and a federal state but not acting entirely as one or the other. More precisely, the label European Union (EU) applies to a system of interstate cooperation communities and treaties. The name currently refers to the overall framework consisting of the European Communities (EC and European Atomic Energy Community [EURATOM]—supranational), the Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal Matters (PJCC—intergovernmental), and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP—intergovernmental). Following the passage of the Reformation Treaty of Lisbon, however, these three areas of cooperation merged to become the new EU and a single judicial entity. As of 2010, the EU spanned 27 European nations, almost half ...