Identity card of the European Union

Currently constituted of: 27 Member States + 5 candidate member states

Surface area: 4,452,510 km²

Population: 495 million inhabitants

Enlargements: six (1973, 1981, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2007)

Number of official languages: 23

Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish

Flag: 12 golden five-point stars in a circle on an azure blue background.

Hymn: Ode to Joy, excerpt from Beethoven’s ninth symphony

Europe day: 9 May, anniversary of Robert Schuman’s 1950 declaration founding the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) 

Currency: euro

The term ECU (European currency unit), which was also the name of an unrelated, medieval currency used in France, was the initial name of the single currency. The European currency was officially named the ‘euro’ in December 1995.

Passport: each Member State issues a uniform model with “European Union” printed before the country name.

Portal website: www.europa.eu

European year of: 2011, European Year of volunteering 

EU Council Presidency: Denmark (01/01/2012 – 30/06/2012)   http://eu2012.dk