An organization now numbering 28 European countries that was established in 1993. The EU took over all the European Community institutions, such as the European Parliament, but also extended the scope of the EC according to the terms of the Maastricht Treaty. The member countries agreed to add a shared foreign policy and commitment to cooperation on security matters, including justice and policing, to their economic and political links under the EC. These constituted the `three pillars’ of the EU, one pillar being the EC, another pillar coordinating foreign and external security policies (originally designating the Western European Union as the EU’s defence wing), and the third pillar coordinating internal matters and justice (particularly on immigration and political asylum). Proposals concerning the creation of a single European currency were not acceptable to all members and there were also disagreements over social policies. However, in 1999 a European currency, the euro, was launched. It is now the official currency of 18 European Union states. In 2009 the Lisbon Treaty merged the three pillars into a single entity, provided for a permanent EU president and foreign minister, and made the EU’s charter of rights legally binding.

In 1995 Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU; in 2004 they were joined by Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia; in 2007, by Bulgaria and Romania; and in 2013, by Croatia. With the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), a free-trade area that includes a number of non-EU European states, the EU established a frontier-free zone in 1994, known as the European Economic Area (EEA). In a national referendum in June 2016 the UK voted to leave the EU, a process that will take at least two years and which will cause major upheaval for the EU.