1.1 European Union • The first word „European“ means that it is situated in Europe and the second word „Union“ means that it unites countries and people. • EU is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. • The population of EU is astimated over than 510 million. • The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. • EU policies aim to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital within the internal market.
1.2 Euro area • The EU consists of 28 countries that meet certain criteria for membership and the accession and euro area is a subset of 19 countries which have adopted the euro as their national currency. • Euro area is a monetary union. • Euro is used by some 340 million people every day and this number will increase as future enlargements of the euro area continue to spread the benefits of the single currency more widely in the EU. • The benefits of the common currency are immediately obvious to anyone travelling abroad or shopping online on websites based in another EU country. • There are other countries which aren´t member of euro area, but they are using euro as their national currency like San marino, Monaco..