What does the EU do?
Euro - a single currency for Europeans
The euro is the name of the single European currency that was put into circulation on 1 January 2002. The symbol of the euro is €.
The euro has replaced the old national currencies in 12 European Union countries: Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Having a single currency makes it easier to travel and to compare prices, and it provides a stable environment for European business, stimulating growth and competitiveness.
Free to move
You can travel, study and work wherever you want in the 15 European Union countries, if you are an EU citizen. The EU is working constantly to give its citizens greater freedom of movement as a fundamental right and to get rid of all discrimination based on nationality. In most of the EU you can travel without carrying a passport and without being stopped for checks at the borders. With very few exceptions, you may buy anything you want anywhere you want and take it all back home with you.
The EU does not decide what you learn in school, but it does work to ensure that your educational and professional qualifications are properly recognised in other EU countries. The EU is working to provide access to learning opportunities for everyone, at home and abroad, through partnerships and exchange schemes and by removing bureaucratic obstacles. Over a million young people have taken advantage of EU programmes, such as "ERASMUS", to pursue their studies and personal development in another European country.
Keeping the peace
War between EU countries is now unthinkable, thanks to the unity that has been built up between them over the last 50 years. Given this success, the EU is now increasingly involved in preserving peace and creating stability in neighbouring countries.
The European Union wants to prevent conflicts. The EU is the biggest donor of financial assistance to troubled places in the world. It is active in peacekeeping and peacemaking actions, and it runs many projects that help to make human rights and democracy succeed in practical terms. To enable its Member States to speak and act in unison on the world stage, the EU is developing its common foreign and security policy and there are plans for more co-operation on defence questions.
An area of freedom, security and justice
We all want safety and security in our lives. Some of the unrest that might threaten everyday life in our local neighbourhood has international roots, and European countries are making a joint effort to tackle these problems. They include international terrorism, drug trafficking and abuse, trafficking in human beings and the illegal exploitation of foreign women for prostitution. The EU countries are determined to fight these evils by adopting common rules and through co-operation between their police, customs and law courts.
The EU also plays a role in asylum and migration policy. It guarantees respect for the right to seek asylum. At the same time, the EU countries are co-ordinating their policies for refugees and trying to tackle the problem at source by combating poverty and preventing conflicts in the countries from which people might want to flee.
Fewer frontiers: more jobs!
Safeguarding employment in Europe and creating new jobs is one of the European Union's key tasks. European industry will not be able to provide more jobs unless the economic conditions are right. And the right conditions are exactly what the Union is working to achieve.
By creating a frontier-free single market and a single currency, the euro, the EU has already given a significant boost to trade and employment in Europe. It has an agreed strategy for stimulating growth and generating more and better jobs. Tomorrow's jobs will be created through research, training and education, a spirit of entrepreneurship, adaptability to new working methods and equal opportunities for everybody.
A third of the entire EU budget is taken up by the Structural Funds which promote growth and jobs in less well-off regions, in order to ensure that wealth in Europe is more evenly distributed.
An information society for everybody
In a world of rapid technological change, the EU is increasingly active in helping European research to achieve scientific excellence. In a variety of sectors covering the whole spectrum of modern technology, the EU finances projects undertaken by research centres, universities and industry.
The emphasis is on putting research and innovation to work for precise socio-economic objectives, such as job creation and improved quality of life. The EU's research priorities include among others life sciences, nano-technology; the space; food quality, sustainable development and the knowledge-based society.
The EU also tries to create the conditions that allow us to actually use new technology in our everyday life. It is due to EU decisions on the technical standards of "GSM" that Europeans are now world leaders in the use and manufacture of mobile telephones.
Caring about our environment
Pollution has no respect for national frontiers. That is why the European Union has a special role to play in environmental protection. Many environmental problems in Europe could not be tackled without joint action by all EU countries.
The EU has adopted over 200 environmental protection directives that are applied in all Member States. Most of the directives are designed to prevent air and water pollution and encourage waste disposal. Other major issues include nature conservation and the supervision of dangerous industrial processes. The EU wants transport, industry, agriculture, fisheries, energy and tourism to be organised in such a way that they can be developed without destroying our natural resources - in short, sustainable development.
Enlargement for a stronger and more stable Europe
Until May 2004 there are 15 EU Member States with a total of 380 million citizens. Ten more countries, mainly from central and Eastern Europe, are expected to join the EU in 2004. Bulgaria and Romania are likely to join in 2007, bringing the EU's total population to nearly 500 million. Turkey is also a candidate country and could join later, when all the conditions for membership are met.
In order to become a member of the EU, a country must have a stable democracy that guarantees the rule of law, human rights and protection of minorities, and it must have a functioning market economy as well as a civil service capable of applying and managing EU laws.
The EU provides substantial financial assistance and advice to help the candidate countries prepare themselves for membership. This unprecedented co-operation has brought benefits to people in both present and future Member States. Trade has increased massively, and it has become easier to deal with the problems that effect us all, such as cross-border pollution and the fight against crime.
Keeping the EU democratic, fair and efficient
The EU needs a streamlined and efficient decision-making system as it enlarges from 15 to 25 and eventually more members. But the arrangements must be fair to all member states, old and new, large and small.
Each EU country has a certain number of votes it can cast when the Council of Ministers takes decisions. The people of each country also elects a certain number of members of the European Parliament. These numbers roughly reflect the relative size of the country's population. They will change in 2004, after ten countries have joined and following the European Parliament elections.
The new numbers will be as follows (in alphabetical order according to the country's name in its own language): A decision by the Council often requires that countries representing about 72% of the votes are in favour.