European Union

About EU

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political union between 27 European countries.
The United Kingdom, which had been a founding member of the EU, left the organization in 2020.
The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force in 1993. The treaty was designed to enhance European political and economic integration by creating a single currency (the euro), a unified foreign and security policy, and common citizenship rights and by advancing cooperation in the areas of immigration, asylum, and judicial affairs.
Additionally, the Treaty of Lisbon, enacted in 2009, gave the EU more broad powers that included being authorized to sign international treaties, increase border patrol, and other security and enforcement provisions.
EU’s headquarters is currently located in Brussels, Belgium.

Eurozone

All European Union Member States coordinate their economic policy-making to support the economic aims of the EU.
However, a number of Member States have taken a step further by replacing their national currencies with the single currency – the euro. These Member States form the eurozone, officially known as the euro area.
The eurozone consists of 20 countries in the European Union.

Why in News?

- Eurozone business activity shrank much more than expected in July as demand in the bloc’s dominant services industry declined while factory output fell at the fastest pace since COVID-19 first took hold.
- The decline was broad-based with the euro zone’s two biggest economies–Germany and France–both in contractionary territory and will likely add to fears the bloc will slip back into recession.

A recession is a significant, widespread, and prolonged downturn in economic activity.

There is no single definition of recession. A common rule of thumb is that two consecutive quarters of negative gross domestic product (GDP) growth mean recession.

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