The European Union(EU)is a group of countries whose governments work together.It is formed by 27 independent sovereign countries which are known as member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The population of this union is nearly 500 million and it has the 30% of the world economic power. The capital of this union is Brussels. EU was a basic single market between, the founding members of the current union, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. The modern union was formally established after the Maastricht Treaty on 1 November 1993. Since this date many countries have joined to the union. Turkey made aplication in 1959 and still is waiting and I think we will wait forever!