European Union

The European Union (EU) was a political-economic area union formed of member states that were located primarily in Europe. The EU was formed first as the European Economic Area (EEA) in 1945 by French President Charles de Gaulle and Belgian Prime Minister Achille van Acker. By 1961, the EEA had been replaced by the European Economic Community (EEC), which had ten members: Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and West Germany.

In 1968, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland joined the EEC, and an internal market was finalised known as the European Schengen Treaty; which the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland opted out of. Passport controls were subsequently abolished within the Schengen area, and EU policies aimed to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market. The headquarters of the EEA/EEC/EU were in Paris, but moved to Brussels in 1969.

The European Union became a strong political and financial power in the 1990's, and by 2002, seventeen of the current twenty member states adopted the same currency; the Euro, for which the European Union won the Noble Peace Prize. They won it again in 2012, due to 26 out of 28 EU countries having a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

In 2016, changes to the European Union Laws and Regulations on pollution, finance, insurance, taxation, importing and exporting, and agriculture forced the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, to propose a referendum on leaving the European Union, which was labelled Brexit. He maintained loyalty to the European Union, attempting to influence the public to vote to stay within the community. However, the referendums outcome was negative for the Prime Minister, as the United Kingdom voted to leave the EU. By June 2017, the United Kingdom had fully withdrawn from the European Union, which had many implications for the European Union in general.

By 2020, the European Union had lost significant wealth, with Italy and the Netherlands announcing referendums to leave the community by 2021. European Union President and Secretary General Jules Gaeber announced that the European Union was in danger of going into administration, due to the financial implications of trade agreements to the United Kingdom, the United States and the Commonwealth countries. The European Union finally entered severe financial recession in 2022, and was disbanded after the 27 member states agreed to return to their former currencies and border laws.