You may already know that the European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 Member States (MS) that are located in the European continent. The Members States, all having different cultures, societies and languages, are sharing part of their sovereignty for peace and prosperity of the continent (as the motto states In varietate Concordia by its Latin-language version).

The main goals of the EU are to promote peace, particularly shared values and the well-being of its citizens. The EU’s fundamental values are respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. Any country must recognise these values to belong to the Union (EU Parliament, see link).

These values form the basis of the EU and are laid out in the Lisbon Treaty and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and are clearly stated.

The module will continue with a brief overview of the history of the EU, the EU institutional framework and the recently launched new Green Deal.

Read more about European goals and values (Link)

The material provided under this course is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.