Europe

One of your new neighbors proposes that the fences be taken down and a common backyard formed.

What are two advantages and two disadvantages of this plan?

Imagine that you are moving into the neighborhood shown below. Which backyard would you choose? Why?

The European Union• 27 European

countries• Founded to

enhance political, economic and social cooperation.

• Founded November 1, 1993

European Union Members

•Austria

•Belgium

•Bulgaria

•Denmark

•Finland

•France

•Germany

•Greece

•Ireland

•Italy

•Luxembourg

•Netherlands

•Portugal

•Spain

•Sweden

•The United Kingdom

•Cyprus

•Romania

•Czech Republic

•Estonia

•Hungary

•Latvia

•Lithuania

•Malta

•Poland

•Slovakia

•Slovenia

The countries in blue use the Euro as their currency

The Euro

• 17 Members of the European Union have changed their currency to the Euro.

• 6 countries who are not part of the EU have also adopted the Euro as their currency - Andorra, Kosovo, Montenegro, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City

• 1 U.S. Dollar = 0.79 Euros• Euro banknotes and coins have been in

circulation since 1 January 2002.

European Debt CrisisSince 2009, concerns about government debt

made it difficult for 4 EU countries to manage their debt - Greece, Italy, Ireland, and Portugal.

Europe’s Finance Ministers created the European Financial Stability Facility. This group helped to stabilize the European economy by providing financial support (loans, debt forgiveness, etc) to countries in the EU.

Easy Travel Around Europe•Europeans and tourists can purchase Eurail passes that allow easy train travel between 18 different countries for a length of time.

•Europe has great public transportation established- trains, buses, taxis, subway systems, and boats make traveling around the continent easy!

Gas Prices in Europe• European gasoline prices are considerably

higher than they are in America, about 2.5 – 3 times higher.

• The cost of raw gasoline is the same, but European countries impose very high gas taxes (almost 70% of the cost).

• Gasoline is sold by the liter in Europe.

1 U.S. Gallon = 3.79 Liters

Nation City Price in USD Regular/GallonGermany Berlin $9.07France Paris $9.24Italy Milan $8.79Denmark Copenhagen $9.69Czech Republic Prague $8.21Finland Helsinki $8.90

The Channel Tunnel (Chunnel)•Crosses under the English Channel between Folkestone, England and Calais, France.

•31 miles across

•Cost $21 Billion to build

•Completed in 1994