The European Union currently comprises 27 Member States. This association of states began in 1952 with the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) by six European states, including Germany. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined in 1973. In the 1980s, the southern enlargement of the EU followed with Portugal, Spain and Greece. The year 1995 marks the accession of Finland, Sweden and Austria. In 2004 the East European EU enlargement was completed, Malta and Cyprus joined also - the number of Member States increasing from 15 to 25. A few years later Romania and Bulgaria (2007) joined followed by Croatia in 2013. In 2020, the United Kingdom became the first Member State ever to leave the European Union.
The eurozone is the unofficial name for the 20 EU countries that are members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and have adopted the euro as their common currency. The EMU started in 1999 with 11 countries, Greece followed two years later. Euro notes and coins were released in 2002, replacing national currencies as means of payment. Until then, the Euro had only been used for cashless payment transactions. Later, Slovenia (2007), Malta and Cyprus (2008), Slovakia (2009), Estonia (2011), Latvia (2014) and Lithuania (2015) joined the euro zone. The most recent member is Croatia, which adopted the single currency in 2023.
