After nearly fifty years, with four waves of accessions the EU today has fifteen Member States and is preparing for its fifth enlargement, this time towards Eastern and Southern Europe. The European Union's mission is to organize relations between the Member States and between their peoples in a coherent manner and on the basis of solidarity.
One of the main objectives of the EU is to promote economic and social progress they did this by creating a single market in 1993 and a single currency in 1999. Another objective was to assert the identity of the European Union on the international scene. The European Union gives humanitarian aid to non-EU countries, take action in international crises and maintain common positions within international organizations. The third objective is to introduce European citizenship. They don't want to replace national citizenship, but complements it and confer a number of civil and politic rights to European citizens. A fourth objective is to develop an area of freedom, security and justice. This is done by linking there self to the operation of the internal market and more particularly the freedom of movement of persons. The last objective is to maintain and build on established EU law. Their putting together all the legislation adopted by the European institutions, together with the founding treaties.
There are five institutions involved in running the European Union today, the European Parliament which is elected by the peoples of the Member States, the Council which is representing the governments of the Member States, the Commission which is the executive and the body having the right to initiate legislation, the Court of Justice which is ensuring compliance with the law, and the Court of Auditors who's responsible for auditing the accounts.
