Words such as the European Union and NATO have appeared frequently in recent news, and their member states are mainly countries in the European region, and Ukraine, which is caught in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, has been trying to join these two organizations. So, what are the member states of the European Union, NATO and other organizations? In addition, what other alliances are there in the European region?
1. NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, founded in 1949, is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
NATO is a military alliance organization in which some countries in Europe and North America cooperate at the military level, and the 30 member states participating in the alliance, except for the United States and Canada, all other countries are European countries, including: Belgium, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Turkey (the territory spans Asia and Europe), Spain, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia.
After independence, Ukraine briefly sought to join NATO, then announced in October 2013 that it would renounce joining NATO, and then Ukraine sought to join NATO again after the Orange Revolution.
2. European Union
Founded in 1993 as the European Union, it was formerly known as the European Community and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium.
The EU is an alliance of political and economic entities established by European countries, and at the same time in foreign affairs, defense, justice, internal affairs and other aspects also strive to achieve unified and coordinated cooperation, under the corresponding functional agencies, including: the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice, the European External Action Agency, eurostat, the European Audit House, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, etc. The EU is similar to the United States of America or the former Soviet Union, but the EU is not yet a country in nature.
The EU currently has 27 member states, including: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Malta, Cyprus, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia.
The UK, an important member of the Early Accession to the EU, officially left the EU in January 2020. Turkey, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries are candidates for the European Union.
After independence, Ukraine had hoped to join the European Union, but in 2013 it announced the suspension of preparations for joining the European Union. In March 2022, Ukraine applied again to join the European Union, and the EU's application for Ukraine is currently under discussion.
3. Eurozone
Refers to the national currency of the unified use of the EUROPEAN Union currency euro in the national currency of the national region, which began to be formally implemented in 2002.
There are currently 19 eurozone countries identified by the EU, including: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece, Malta, Cyprus. Those countries that have joined the eurozone have their original national currencies out of circulation in their own countries.
Croatia will soon join the eurozone in the future. Sweden and Denmark are categorically excluded from the eurozone. During its membership of the European Union, the UK has never joined the eurozone.
In addition to EU countries, there are also some countries that use the euro as their national legal tender, including: Monaco, San Marino, the Vatican, Andorra, Montenegro and so on.
Ukraine's current legal tender is the hryvnia, which began in September 1996 to officially replace the original ku state, also known as the Ukrainian ruble, which is equivalent to the Soviet ruble used before Ukraine's independence.
4. Schengen Agreement
Under the Schengen Agreement, the member states that acceded to the agreement have no border checkpoints with each other, their citizens can move freely and live indefinitely, and the police and judicial systems are mutually supportive, which was introduced in 1985.
There are currently 26 countries acceding to the Schengen Agreement, including: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Switzerland, Liechtenstein.
The countries in the world that handle visas in the Schengen Agreement area are divided into three categories: the positive list, the grey list and the negative list: the positive list refers to all the Schengen Agreement member countries and other visa-exempt countries, a total of about 30; the gray list refers to the countries that part of the Schengen Agreement member states require to apply for visas, a total of about 20 countries, and whether the grey list countries require visa applications is determined by the Schengen member states; the "negative list" countries refers to the countries that must apply for visas, a total of about 130 countries.
The United Kingdom and Ireland in the British Isles were once limited members of the Schengen Agreement, but have never fully joined the Schengen Agreement.
Ukraine reached an agreement with the European Union in May 2017, in which Ukraine was granted visa-free entry to the European Union, under which Ukrainian citizens could stay in the Schengen Agreement area for no more than three months, except for work and study.
5. Council of Europe
The European Commission, founded in 1949, is headquartered in Strasbourg, France. The European Commission is different from the European Commission, which, like the European Union, is an independent union organization, while the European Commission is an institution under the European Union, equivalent to the "government" of the European Union.
The Commission is committed to achieving a more united and closer European union, promoting the progress of member states around human rights, the rule of law, culture, the economy and other aspects. The Commission consists of the Council of Ministers, the Parliament, the European Court of Human Rights, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Congress of Representatives and other bodies.
The Commission currently has 47 member states, including: Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, France, Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Cyprus, San Marino, Turkey, Spain, Greece, Italy, United Kingdom, Finland, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Romania, Andorra, Moldova, Albania, Latvia, Ukraine, Macedonia, Russia, Croatia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Monaco, Montenegro. In addition, outside Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, the Vatican, Israel and other countries are observer states of the European Commission's Parliament or the Committee of Ministers.
Both Russia and Ukraine are members of the Council of Europe. Since 2014, Russia and Ukraine have been at odds with the European Commission on several occasions, with both sides trying to propose kicking each other out of the Commission.
6. Warsaw Pact (dissolved)
Founded in 1955 and headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, it was dissolved after the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
The Warsaw Pact was a military alliance established by the former Soviet Union after seeing that Greece, Turkey, the former Federal Republic of Germany and other countries had also joined NATO, and felt threatened militarily, and its members were former European socialist countries, including: the former Soviet Union, the former Democratic Republic of Germany, the former Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Albania.
At that time, Ukraine, as a member of the former Soviet Union, was naturally within the Warsaw Pact.
7. European Union (replaced by the European Union)
The full name is the European Community, which was established in 1967 on the basis of the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community and the European Economic Community, and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, which is the predecessor of the European Union.
The above-mentioned 7 important european regional union organizations, Ukraine as an independent state, only joined the Council of Europe.
In addition, there are or have been some other alliances in the European region, such as the OSCE, the European Economic Cooperation Organization, the European Free Trade Association, the European Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the Mediterranean Union, the Western European Union, etc.
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