uniunea europeana

160
Obtaining of Cyprus citizenship Granting of citizenship to investors in Cyprus On May 24, 2013 the Cyprus Government approved a new program for obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus on exclusive terms for investors. No other country of the European Union offers economic citizenship as freely and without difficulty on such simple and clear conditions: Passport of a Cyprus citizen is a full EU passport Passport turnaround time - 3 months An investor gets a passport of Cyprus for him/herself, a spouse and for all financially dependent children under the age of 28 No need to live in Cyprus It is not required to pass exams in history and the official language The Republic of Cyprus enables one to have a second citizenship, i.e. when a person receives a passport of Cyprus nobody requires him/her to exit from the first citizenship There is no mandatory condition for establishing a company in Cyprus and for employment of Cyprus nationals The investor has a wide range of choice for investment. In particular: acquisition of shares and bonds, placing deposit in the bank, creating/buying a business or just buying a property Minimum duration of investment - 3 years. Required amount of investment - €5,0 million. However , if the investor submits an application for citizenship within a group of investors , the minimum amount of the investment is reduced to €2,5 million. Members of the group are united only by the simultaneity of applying for citizenship. They can make different investments. Cyprus Developers Alliance forms such groups on a regular basis . Investor can always join a forming group. It should be added that the law requires mandatory acquisition investor's personal property worth at least €500,000 + VAT. You are welcome to apply to us. Cyprus Developers Alliance offers complete legal support for obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus. Please, read below the full text, list of criteria and conditions for obtaining citizenship of Cyprus. You can also see the frequently asked questions on this topic and the answers to them.

Upload: aida-marinasararu

Post on 11-Dec-2015

29 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

DESCRIPTION

On May 24, 2013 the Cyprus Government approved a new program for obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus on exclusive terms for investors.No other country of the European Union offers economic citizenship as freely and without difficulty on such simple and clear conditions:

TRANSCRIPT

Obtaining of Cyprus citizenship

Granting of citizenship to investors in Cyprus

On May 24, 2013 the Cyprus Government approved a new program for obtaining citizenship of

the Republic of Cyprus on exclusive terms for investors.

No other country of the European Union offers economic citizenship as freely and without

difficulty on such simple and clear conditions:

Passport of a Cyprus citizen is a full EU passport

Passport turnaround time - 3 months

An investor gets a passport of Cyprus for him/herself, a spouse and for all

financially dependent children under the age of 28

No need to live in Cyprus

It is not required to pass exams in history and the official language

The Republic of Cyprus enables one to have a second citizenship, i.e. when a

person receives a passport of Cyprus nobody requires him/her to exit from the first

citizenship

There is no mandatory condition for establishing a company in Cyprus and for

employment of Cyprus nationals

The investor has a wide range of choice for investment. In particular: acquisition

of shares and bonds, placing deposit in the bank, creating/buying a business or just

buying a property

Minimum duration of investment - 3 years.

Required amount of investment - €5,0 million. However , if the investor submits an application

for citizenship within a group of investors , the minimum amount of the investment is reduced to

€2,5 million. Members of the group are united only by the simultaneity of applying for

citizenship. They can make different investments. Cyprus Developers Alliance forms such

groups on a regular basis . Investor can always join a forming group.

It should be added that the law requires mandatory acquisition investor's personal property worth

at least €500,000 + VAT.

You are welcome to apply to us. Cyprus Developers Alliance offers complete legal support for

obtaining citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus. Please, read below the full text, list of criteria

and conditions for obtaining citizenship of Cyprus. You can also see the frequently asked

questions on this topic and the answers to them.

Council of Ministers Decision dated 19.3.2014

SCHEME FOR NATURALISATION OF INVESTORS IN CYPRUS BY EXCEPTION

on the basis of subsection (2) of section 111A of the Civil Registry Laws of 2002-2013

A non-Cypriot citizen, who meets one of the following economic criteria (A), either personally

or through a company/ companies in which he/ she participates as a shareholder - proportionally

based on the percentage of participation, or even as a high-ranking senior manager of a company/

companies that meets one of economic criteria (A), may apply for the acquisition of the Cypriot

citizenship through Naturalization by exception.

A high-ranking senior manager may apply, provided that he/she receives such a remuneration

that generates for the Republic tax revenue of at least €100,000 for a three year period and

provided that this tax has already been paid or prepaid.

The applicant should have concluded the necessary investments during the three years preceding

the date of the application and must retain the said investments for a period of at least three years

since the date of the Naturalization.

In addition, the applicant must fulfill the Terms and Conditions set out in Part B.

In the case where, following a periodic inspection, it has been ascertained that any condition is

being circumvented, the Naturalization may be revoked.

The applicant should meet one of the following criteria:

Α.1 Investment in government bonds

The applicant must have purchased state bonds of the Republic of Cyprus of at least €5,0 million.

or

Α.2 Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies or Cypriot organizations

The applicant must have purchased financial assets of Cypriot companies or Cypriot

organizations (bonds/ securities/ debentures registered and issued in the Republic of Cyprus) of

at least €5,0 million.

It is noted that these financial assets can be purchased either at issuance, or subsequently by the

market.

or

Α.3 Investment in real estate, land development and infrastructure projects

The applicant must have made an investment of at least € 5,0 million for the purchase or

construction of buildings or for the construction of other land development projects (residential

or commercial developments, developments in the tourism sector or other infrastructure

projects).

or

Α.4 Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot businesses or companies

The applicant must have made an investment of at least € 5,0 million in the purchase, creation or

participation in businesses or companies, that are based and operating in the Republic. These

businesses or companies should evidently have a tangible presence in Cyprus and employ at least

five (5) Cypriot citizens.

It is noted that the mandatory conversion of deposits into shares is included in this criterion.

or

Α.5 Deposits in Cypriot banks

The applicant must have personal fixed term deposits for three years in Cypriot banks or deposits

of privately owned companies or trusts (in which he/she is the beneficiary owner) in the

Republic of Cyprus of at least €5,0 million.

or

Α.6 Combination of the aforementioned criteria Α.1 (Investment in government

bonds), Α.2 (Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies or

organizations), Α.3 (Investment in real estate, land development and

infrastructure projects), Α.4 (Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot

businesses or companies) and Α.5 (Deposits in Cypriot banks)

The applicant is required to have a combination of the above amounting to at least €5,0 million.

or

Α.7 Persons whose deposits with the Popular Bank Public Company Ltd have

been impaired due to the measures implemented after the 15th March 2013

The applicant has incurred an impairment in deposits amounting to a total of at least €3,0

million.

In the case where the applicant has incurred an impairment in his/her deposits under €3,0 million

he/she may apply, having made an additional investment through the criteria A.1 (Investment in

Government bonds), A.2 (Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies or Cypriot

organizations), A3 (Investment in real estate, land development or infrastructure projects), A.4

(Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot businesses and companies) and A.5 (Deposits in

Cypriot Banks) for the balance of the required amount of the aforementioned criteria.

or

Α.8 Major Collective Investments

The Council of Ministers shall have the right on special occasions, to reduce the above criteria

(Α.1 (Investment in Government Bonds), Α.2 (Investment in financial assets of Cypriot

companies or Cypriot organizations), Α.3 (Investment in real estate, land development or

infrastructure projects) and Α.4 (Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot businesses and

companies):

I. To €2,5 millions for investors, who demonstrably participate in a special collective investment

scheme, provided that the total value of the investment is at least €12,5 millions.

II. To €2,0 millions for investors who demonstrably participate in a special collective investment

scheme, provided that the total value of the investment is more than €12.5 millions. It is noted

that this present provision (II), will be in force until the 1st of June 2014.

In addition, it is noted that for the above mentioned provisions (Ι) and (ΙΙ), the investment for the

Criteria Α1 until Α4 may be realized through a different salesman/ provider (physical or legal

entity).

B. TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Clean Criminal Record: the applicant must have a clean criminal record. Furthermore, his

name must not be included on the list of persons whose property is ordered to be frozen within

the boundaries of the European Union.

2. Residence in the Republic of Cyprus: In all cases listed in Part A, the applicant must hold a

permanent privately-owned residence in the Republic of Cyprus, the purchase price of which

must be at least €500.000, plus V.A.T.

It is noted that members of the same family, which apply separately as investors, can collectively

acquire a residence, provided that the total value of this home-property covers the amount of €

500.000 per each applicant.

C. SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS

In order to examine any applications the submission of the form (M127) and of the following is

required:

1. Clean Criminal Record:

Certificate of Clean Criminal Record from the country of origin and the country of residence (if

it differs).

2. Residence in the Republic of Cyprus:

(a) Contract of Sale.

(b) Title Deeds/ Receipt for lodging the contract with the Lands and Surveys Department

(c) Receipts for paying the agreed purchase price

(d) Copy of the wire transfer in the Cypriot commercial banking institution in the name of the

seller or the seller’s company

As for the investment Criteria the following are required, depending on the case:

(a) Certificate of Registration of the company/ companies by the Registrar of Companies

(b) Certificate of shareholders by the Registrar of Companies or certificates evidencing that the

applicant is the beneficiary owner of the company/ companies

(c) Audited Accounts of the company (or companies) for the last three years preceding the year

of the application

(d) If the applicant is a high-ranking senior manager the submission of the employment

contract and the receipt from the Department of Inland Revenue is additionally required.

Any other document that might be requested either by the Ministry of Interior, or by the

Ministry of Finance.

Furthermore, depending on the case, the following are required:

1. Investment in Government bonds

(a) Receipts from the Treasury of the Republic of Cyprus for the purchase of the Government

bonds.

2. Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies or Cypriot organizations

(a) Title/titles and other documents regarding the financial assets.

(b) Copy of the wire transfer in the Cypriot commercial banking institution in the name of the

company or the organization

3. Investment in real estate, land development or infrastructure projects

(a) Contract of sale.

(b) Title Deeds/ Receipt for lodging the contract with the Lands and Surveys Department

(c) Receipts for paying the agreed purchase price

(d) Copy of the wire transfer in the Cypriot commercial banking institution in the name of the

seller or the seller’s company

4. Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot businesses and companies

(a) Contract of sale.

(b) Receipts for paying the agreed purchase price

(c) Certificate of shareholders by the Registrar of Companies or certificates evidencing that the

applicant is the beneficiary owner of the company/ companies

(d) Copy of the wire transfer in the Cypriot commercial banking institution in the name of the

company or the organization

(e) Confirmation from the Social Insurance Department as to the insurable income of the

Cypriot employees in the company

(f) Confirmation from the Inland Revenues Department as to the taxable income of the Cypriot

employees in the companies or businesses that the applicant invested in.

5. Deposits in Cypriot banks

(a) Confirmation from Cypriot banks as to the fixed term deposits for three years of the

applicant or the companies in which he is the beneficiary owner or of the trust in which he is the

beneficiary owner

(b) Copy of the wire transfer in the Cypriot commercial banking institution

6. Impairment of deposits in the Popular Bank

(a) Confirmation as to the level and the time of the impairment of the deposits

(b) In the case of deposits of companies of which the applicant is the beneficiary owner, the

Certificate of Registration of the Company by the Registrar of Companies and/or any other

evidence, along with a declaration from the trustee of the funds confirming the beneficial owner

is to be attached

None of the above affect the absolute discretion of the Council of Ministers in taking a Decision.

Granting of citizenship by the standard procedure

Having been living in the Republic of Cyprus for 7 years time (the period is determined by

border control marks in your international passport) you are entitled to making an application for

obtaining Cyprus citizenship.

The citizenship as opposed to residence permit is not granted for the entire family at a time. It is

granted to that spouse who has been living in Cyprus for 7 years. In a few months time

citizenship will be automatically granted to minor children (under 18). The other spouse will

obtain citizenship when he/she has been living in Cyprus for 7 years. Otherwise in three years

time as a spouse of a national of Cyprus.

Citizenship of the European Union

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding

citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2012)

German passport British passport Italian passport

Bulgarian passport Spanish passport Dutch passport

Romanian passport Portuguese passport Greek passport

EU member states use a common passport design, burgundy coloured with the name of the member

state, coat of arms and the title "European Union" (in the language(s) of the issuing country).

Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, which was signed in 1992,

and has been in force since 1993. European Union citizenship is supplementary to national citizenship

and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement,

settlement and employment across the EU, and the right to consular protection by other EU states'

embassies when a person's country of citizenship does not maintain an embassy or consulate in the

country they need protection in.[1]

Contents

1 History

2 Stated rights

2.1 Free movement rights

3 Acquisition

3.1 Exceptions for overseas territories

3.2 Summary of member states' nationality laws

4 Danish opt-out

5 See also

6 Further reading

7 References

8 External links

History

EU citizenship as a distinct concept was first introduced by the Maastricht Treaty, and was extended by

the Treaty of Amsterdam.[2] Prior to the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, the European Communities treaties

provided guarantees for the free movement of economically active persons, but not, generally, for

others. The 1951 Treaty of Paris[3] establishing the European Coal and Steel Community established a

right to free movement for workers in these industries and the 1957 Treaty of Rome[4] provided for the

free movement of workers and services.

However, the Treaty provisions were interpreted by the European Court of Justice not as having a

narrow economic purpose, but rather a wider social and economic purpose.[5] In Levin,[6] the Court

found that the "freedom to take up employment was important, not just as a means towards the

creation of a single market for the benefit of the Member State economies, but as a right for the worker

to raise her or his standard of living".[5] Under the ECJ caselaw, the rights of free movement of workers

applies regardless of the worker's purpose in taking up employment abroad,[6] to both part-time and

full-time work,[6] and whether or not the worker required additional financial assistance from the

Member State into which he moves.[7] Since, the ECJ has held[8] that a recipient of service has free

movement rights under the treaty and this criterion is easily fulfilled,[9] effectively every national of an

EU country within another Member State, whether economically active or not, had a right under Article

12 of the European Community Treaty to non-discrimination even prior to the Maastricht Treaty.[10]

In Martinez Sala,[11] the European Court of Justice held that the citizenship provisions provided

substantive free movement rights in addition to those already granted by Union law.

Stated rights

Historically, the main benefit of being a citizen of an EU state has been that of free movement. The free

movement also applies to the citizens of European Economic Area states[12] and Switzerland.[13]

However with the creation of EU citizenship, certain political rights came into being. The Treaty on the

Functioning of the European Union[14] provides for citizens to be "directly represented at Union level in

the European Parliament", and "to participate in the democratic life of the Union" (Treaty on the

European Union, Title II, Article 10). Specifically, the following rights are afforded;

Political rights

Voting in European elections: a right to vote and stand in elections to the European Parliament, in any

EU member state (Article 22)

Voting in municipal elections: a right to vote and stand in local elections in an EU state other than

their own, under the same conditions as the nationals of that state (Article 22)

Accessing European government documents: a right to access to European Parliament, Council, and

Commission documents (Article 15).

Petitioning Parliament and the Ombudsman: the right to petition the European Parliament and the

right to apply to the European Ombudsman in order to bring to his attention any cases of poor

administration by the EU institutions and bodies, with the exception of the legal bodies (Article 24)[15]

Linguistic rights: the right to apply to the EU institutions in one of the official languages and to receive

a reply in that same language (Article 24).

Rights of free movement

Right to free movement and residence: a right of free movement and residence throughout the Union

and the right to work in any position (including national civil services with the exception of those posts

in the public sector that involve the exercise of powers conferred by public law and the safeguard of

general interests of the State or local authorities (Article 21) for which however there is no one single

definition);

Freedom from discrimination on nationality: a right not to be discriminated against on grounds of

nationality within the scope of application of the Treaty (Article 18);

Rights abroad

Right to consular protection: a right to protection by the diplomatic or consular authorities of other

Member States when in a non-EU Member State, if there are no diplomatic or consular authorities from

the citizen's own state (Article 23): this is due to the fact that not all member states maintain embassies

in every country in the world (16 countries have only one embassy from an EU state[16]).

Free movement rights

European Union

Flag of the European Union

This article is part of a series on the

politics and government

of the European Union

Parliament

[show]

European Council

[show]

EU Council

[show]

Commission

[show]

Court of Justice

[show]

Central Bank

[show]

Court of Auditors

[show]

Agencies

Other bodies

[show]

Policies and issues

[show]

Foreign relations

[show]

Elections

[show]

Law

[show]

v t e

Article 21 Freedom to move and reside

Article 21 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[14] states that

Every citizen of the Union shall have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the

Member States, subject to the limitations and conditions laid down in this Treaty and by the measures

adopted to give it effect.

The European Court of Justice has remarked that,

EU Citizenship is destined to be the fundamental status of nationals of the Member States[17]

The ECJ has held that this Article confers a directly effective right upon citizens to reside in another

Member State.[17][18] Before the case of Baumbast,[18] it was widely assumed that non-economically

active citizens had no rights to residence deriving directly from the EU Treaty, only from directives

created under the Treaty. In Baumbast, however, the ECJ held that (the then[19]) Article 18 of the EC

Treaty granted a generally applicable right to residency, which is limited by secondary legislation, but

only where that secondary legislation is proportionate.[20] Member States can distinguish between

nationals and Union citizens but only if the provisions satisfy the test of proportionality.[21] Migrant EU

citizens have a "legitimate expectation of a limited degree of financial solidarity... having regard to their

degree of integration into the host society"[22] Length of time is a particularly important factor when

considering the degree of integration.

The ECJ's case law on citizenship has been criticised for subjecting an increasing number of national

rules to the proportionality assessment.[21]

Article 45 Freedom of movement to work

Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[14] states that

1. Freedom of movement for workers shall be secured within the Union.

2. Such freedom of movement shall entail the abolition of any discrimination based on nationality

between workers of the Member States as regards employment, remuneration and other conditions of

work and employment.

State employment reserved exclusively for nationals varies between member states. For example,

training as a barrister in Britain and Ireland is not reserved for nationals, while the corresponding French

course qualifies one as a 'juge' and hence can only be taken by French citizens. However, it is broadly

limited to those roles that exercise a significant degree of public authority, such as judges, police, the

military, diplomats, senior civil servants or politicians. Note that not all Member States choose to restrict

all of these posts to nationals.

Much of the existing secondary legislation and case law was consolidated[23] in the Citizens' Rights

Directive 2004/38/EC on the right to move and reside freely within the EU.[24]

Limitations

New member states may undergo transitional regimes, during which their nationals only enjoy

restricted access to labour markets in other member states. EU member states are permitted to keep

restrictions on citizens of the newly acceded countries for a maximum of seven years after accession.

For the EFTA states (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), the maximum is nine years.

Following the 2004 enlargement, three "old" member states—Ireland, Sweden and the United

Kingdom—decided to allow unrestricted access to their labour markets. By December 2009, all but two

member states—Austria and Germany—had completely dropped controls. These restrictions too

expired on 1 May 2011.[25]

Following the 2007 enlargement, all pre-2004 member states except Finland and Sweden imposed

restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, as did two member states that joined in 2004: Malta

and Hungary. As of November 2012, all but 8 EU countries have dropped restrictions entirely. These

restrictions too expired on 1 January 2014. Norway opened its labour market in June 2012, while

Switzerland and Lichtenstein may keep restrictions in place until 2016.[25]

Following the 2013 enlargement, some countries implemented restrictions on Croatian nationals

following the country's EU accession on 1 July 2013. As of July 2013, all but 13 EU countries have

dropped restrictions entirely.[26] The UK Home Office has announced a bill to this effect.[27]

Acquisition

There is no common EU policy on the acquisition of European citizenship as it is supplementary to

national citizenship (one cannot be an EU citizen without being a national of a member state). Article 20

(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union[14] states that:

"Citizenship of the Union is hereby established. Every person holding the nationality of a Member

State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to and not replace

national citizenship."

While nationals of Member States are citizens of the union, "It is for each Member State, having due

regard to Union law, to lay down the conditions for the acquisition and loss of nationality."[28] As a

result, there is a great variety in rules and practices with regard to the acquisition and loss of citizenship

in EU member states.[29]

Exceptions for overseas territories

In practice this means that a member state may withhold EU citizenship from certain groups of citizens,

most commonly in overseas territories of member states outside the EU.

For example, owing to the complexity of British nationality law, a 1982 declaration by the UK

government defined who would be deemed to be a British "national" for European Union purposes:[30]

British citizens, as defined by Part I of the British Nationality Act 1981.

British subjects, within the meaning of Part IV of the British Nationality Act 1981, but only if they also

possess the 'right of abode' under UK immigration law.

British overseas territories citizens who derive their citizenship by a connection to Gibraltar.

This declaration therefore excludes from EU citizenship various historic categories of British citizenship

generally associated with former British colonies, such as British Overseas Citizens, British Nationals

(Overseas), British Protected Persons and any British subject which does not have the 'right of abode'

under UK immigration law.

In 2002, with the passing of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, EU citizenship was extended to

almost all British overseas territories citizens when they were automatically granted full British

citizenship (with the exception of those with an association to the British Sovereign Base Areas of

Akrotiri and Dhekelia on the Island of Cyprus[31]). This has effectively granted them full EU citizenship

rights, including free movement rights, although only residents of Gibraltar have the right to vote in

European Parliament elections. In contrast, British citizens in the Crown Dependencies of Jersey,

Guernsey and the Isle of Man have always been considered to be EU citizens but, unlike residents of the

British overseas territories, are prohibited from exercising EU free movement rights under the terms of

the UK Accession Treaty. (see Guernsey passport, Isle of Man passport, Jersey passport).[32]

Another example are the residents of Faroe Islands of Denmark which, though in possession of full

Danish citizenship, are outside the EU and are explicitly excluded from EU citizenship under the terms of

the Danish Accession Treaty.[33] This is in contrast to residents of the Danish territory of Greenland

who, whilst also outside the EU as a result of the 1984 Greenland Treaty, do receive EU citizenship as

this was not specifically excluded by the terms of that treaty (see Faroe Islands and the European Union;

Greenland and the European Union).

Summary of member states' nationality laws

This section is incomplete. (February 2013)

This is a summary of nationality laws for each of the twenty-eight EU member states.[34]

Member State Acquisition by birth Acquisition by descent Acquisition by marriage

Acquisition by naturalisation Multiple nationality permitted

Austria Austria

Persons born in Austria:

at least one of whose married parents is an Austrian citizen

out of wedlock and whose mother is Austrian citizen

who is foundling and is found out under the age of 6 months

Austrian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

6 years' residence if married for at least 5 years (and general citizenship conditions are met, including

German language proficiency)

6 years' residence if born in Austria, citizen of another EEC country, granted asylum, or "exceptionally

integrated"

depending on fulfillment of other conditions, up to 30 years' residence

Only allowed with special permission or if dual citizenship was obtained at birth (binational

parents [one Austrian, one foreign] or birth in a jus-soli country such as USA and Canada)

Belgium Belgium

Persons born in Belgium who:

are stateless

are foundlings

lose any other nationality before 18

have a parent born in Belgium[citation needed]

have a birth or adopted parent resident in Belgium for at least 5 of the past 10 years

Belgian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Belgian citizen father[citation needed]

Yes—after 3 years cohabitation in Belgium

5 years' residence—can petition federal government[citation needed]

10 years' residence—automatic by request at city hall[citation needed]

2 years' residence (stateless persons)

Yes

Bulgaria Bulgaria

Persons born in Bulgaria who:

are stateless

are foundlings

Bulgarian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

The applicant should be at least 18 years old;

have permission for permanent or for long-term residence in Bulgaria since at least 3 years;

have not been investigated or sentenced by the Bulgarian authorities;

have income or occupation;

be able to speak and write in Bulgarian;

renounce previous citizenship (not applicable to citizens of the EU and EEA countries, Switzerland and

countries with reciprocity agreement with Bulgaria; dual citizenship is allowed for them);

have marriage to Bulgarian citizen since at least 3 years and the marriage is actual.

The applicant should be at least 18 years old;

have permission for permanent or for long-term residence in Bulgaria since at least 5 years;

have not been investigated or sentenced by the Bulgarian authorities;

have income or occupation;

be able to speak and write in Bulgarian;

renounce previous citizenship (not applicable to citizens of the EU and EEA countries, Switzerland and

countries with reciprocity agreement with Bulgaria; dual citizenship is allowed for them).

Yes - for Bulgarian citizens by birth;

Yes - for naturalised citizens of the EU and EEA countries, Switzerland and countries with reciprocity

agreement with Bulgaria[35]

Croatia Croatia Persons born in Croatia:

At least one parent is a Croatian citizen

who is foundling (but such citizenship can be revoked if later established both parents were foreign

citizens)

Croatian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions: born to Croatian parents born after March 1, 1991 and if parents are married at the time of

birth, Croatian citizenship of mother the father is required should the parents happen to marry at some

time after birth, citizenship is automatically granted to child retroactively. If the child is over 14 at that

time, child's consent is needed. ?

8 years' residence (can be shortened)

8 years' residence

sufficient knowledge of Croatian language

Yes, but persons seeking to become Croatian citizens by naturalisation are to renounce foreign

citizenship unless applying by 'privileged naturalisation' (e.g. descendants of Croatian emigrants)

Cyprus Cyprus

Persons born in Cyprus who:

are stateless

are foundlings

Cypriot nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

3 years' residence

7 years' residence

Yes

Czech Republic Czech Republic

Persons born in the Czech Republic:

who are foundlings

whose parents are both stateless, and at least one of whom is a Czech permanent resident

No

Holders of a Czech permanent residence permit for at least 5 years

Yes, effective January 1, 2014[36]

Denmark Denmark

Persons born in Denmark who:

are foundlings

Danish nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

The child's mother is a Danish citizen;

The child's father is a Danish citizen and the parents are married;

6 years' residence if married for at least 3 years

9 years' residence (holders of a permanent residence permit)

8 years' residence (refugees and stateless persons)

Yes, effective September 1, 2015[37]

Estonia Estonia[38]

Persons born in Estonia who:

are foundlings

Persons who have at least one parent with Estonian citizenship.

No (unless married to an Estonian citizen before 26 February 1992)

8 years' residence

No (although Estonian citizens by descent cannot be deprived of their Estonian citizenship)

Finland Finland

Persons born in Finland who:

are stateless, or

are foundlings

Finnish nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

Minimum residence requirement of four years of residence.

Five years of residence (or a total of seven years of residence since age 15) in Finland; and

knowledge of at least one of Finnish, Swedish or Finnish sign language.

Reductions apply under certain conditions.

Yes

France France

At birth, persons born in France who:

are stateless, or

have a parent born in France

At 13, persons born in France upon the parent's request.

At 16, persons born in France upon their own request.

At 18, persons born in France who:

have resided in France for at least 5 years since 11[citation needed]

French nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Through parentage (right of blood):[39]

The child (legitimate or natural) is French if at least one parent is French.

4[citation needed] years' marriage; also, after 5[citation needed] years outside France

Naturalisation conditions

[show]

Yes

Germany Germany

Persons born in Germany, if at least one parent has resided in Germany for at least 8 years and holds a

permanent residence permit

German nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Through parentage (right of blood)

Member of recognised historical German community abroad (e.g. in the Balkans, Kazakhstan); Also

granted to children/grandchildren of those deprived of citizenship by the Nuremberg Laws

2 years of marriage and 3 years of continuous residence in Germany

8 years' residence

7 years' residence (if an integration course has been completed)

6 years' residence (if especially well integrated and has a very high command of the German language,

or a refugee or stateless person)

No residence (victims of Nazi persecution)

No, unless:

Conditions

[show]

Greece Greece

Persons born in Greece who:

have a parent born in Greece

are foundlings

are stateless

Greek nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Member of recognised historical Greek community abroad in countries of ex-USSR

Ethnic Greek of different citizenship accepted to military academies, or inscribes to serve to the army,

or enlists as a volunteer in time of war

3 years of continuous residence in Greece and has an offspring from the marriage

10 years residence in the last 12 years

5 years residence in the last 12 years for refugees

Sufficient knowledge of Greek language, Greek history, and Greek culture in general

Athlete of an Olympic Sport, with 5 years residence in the last 12 years, who fulfills the conditions of

being a member of the Greek National Team of that sport, as these are stated by the international laws

for that sport

Yes

Hungary Hungary

Persons born in Hungary who:

are foundlings

are stateless

Hungarian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

At least one parent is a Hungarian citizen

Any person of Hungarian ethnicity, which has to be proven by

sufficient level of Hungarian language

demonstrating at least one ancestor born in the Kingdom of Hungary (no limit on number of

generations).

Yes After 3 years

After 8 years and meeting conditions of good character

After 5 years if

born in Hungary

resided in Hungary in their pupillage

stateless

After 3 years if

married to a Hungarian citizen

has a minor child that is Hungarian citizen

adopted by a Hungarian citizen

refugee in Hungary

Yes

Republic of Ireland Ireland

Persons born in Ireland:

are automatically an Irish citizen if he or she is not entitled to the citizenship of any other country.

entitled to be an Irish citizen if at least one parent is:

an Irish citizen (or someone entitled to be an Irish citizen).

a resident of the island of Ireland who is entitled to reside in either the Republic or in Northern

Ireland without any time limit on that residence.

a legal resident of the island of Ireland for three out of the 4 years preceding the child's birth.

Irish nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

if at the time of birth, at least one parent was an Irish citizen.

if you have an Irish citizen grandparent born on the island of Ireland. The parent would have

automatically been an Irish citizen. Grandchild can secure citizenship by registering themselves in the

Foreign Births Register. Citizenship gained via the Foreign Births Register can only be passed on to

children born after the parent themselves were registered.

3 years of marriage or civil partnership to an Irish citizen

5 years of residency in Ireland, of which 1 (one) year immediately before application

Yes

Italy Italy

Persons born in Italy who:

have a parent born in Italy

are foundlings

are stateless

Italian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

2 years of legal residence in Italy (3 years if living abroad) through naturalisation

10 years' residence, no criminal record and sufficient financial resources

7 years' residence for children adopted by Italian citizens

5 years' residence for refugees or stateless individuals

4 years' residence for EU member states nationals[40]

3 years' residence for descendants of Italian grandparents and for foreigners[citation needed] born in

Italy

Yes

Latvia Latvia

Persons born in Latvia who:

Latvian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

After 5 years of permanent residence

Starting from October the 1st, 2013 hereby listed persons are eligible[41] to have dual

citizenship with Latvia:

citizens of member countries of EU, NATO and EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland)

citizens of Australia, Venezuela, Brazil, New Zealand

citizens of the counties that have had mutual recognition of dual citizenship with Latvia

people who were granted the dual citizenship by the Cabinet of Ministers of Latvia

people of Latvian or Livonian ethnicity or exiles registering citizenship of Latvia[42]

people who have applied for dual citizenship before the previous Latvian Citizenship law (1995).

Lithuania Lithuania

Persons born in Lithuania who:

are stateless.

Lithuanian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

at least one parent is a Lithuanian citizen

at least one direct ancestor was Lithuanian citizen during the period of 1918-1940.

7 years of permanent residence and demonstrating Lithuanian language ability

No

Luxembourg Luxembourg

Persons born in Luxembourg who:

are stateless, or

are foundlings, or

have a parent born in Luxembourg

No

7 consecutive years' residence

Yes

Malta Malta

Persons born in Malta between 21 September 1964 and 31 July 1989

Persons born outside Malta between 21 September 1964 and 31 July 1989 to a father with Maltese

citizenship through birth in Malta, registration or naturalisation

Persons born on or after 1 August 1989, inside or outside Malta, to at least one parent with Maltese

citizenship through birth in Malta, registration or naturalisation

Maltese nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Yes

5 years of marriage to a Maltese citizen (if de jure or de facto separated, then still living together five

years after the marriage) or a widow/widower of a Maltese citizen five years after the marriage

5 years of residence

Yes

Netherlands Netherlands

Persons born in Netherlands who:

see: "Dutch by birth"

Dutch nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Persons with a Dutch parent

3 years of residence and demonstrating Dutch language ability

After 5 years uninterrupted residence, with continuous registration in the municipal register

Under certain conditions: e.g. foreign citizenship may be kept in the event of naturalisation via

marriage.

Poland Poland

Persons born in Poland.

Polish nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

Yes

3 years of residence with permanent residence permit card under the condition of speaking Polish

language

2 years of residence with permanent residence permit card under the condition of having Polish

ethnicity

Yes but in Poland, Polish identification must be used and the dual citizen is treated legally as

only Polish

Portugal Portugal

Persons born in Portugal who:

are stateless

are foundlings

have a birth parent resident in Portugal for at least 10 years on a valid residence permit

have a birth parent with citizenship of a Lusophone country and resident in Portugal for at least 6

years on a valid residence permit

Portuguese nationality is transmitted by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

A person married to a Portuguese national for at least 3 years can apply to be registered as a

Portuguese national as a matter of right, provided that the registration is applied for during the marriage

(and not after its dissolution by death or divorce). Nationality takes effect upon registration and is not

retroactive, and is not lost by the dissolution of the marriage.

Naturalisation conditions

[show]

Yes

Romania Romania

Persons born in Romania who:

are foundlings

have Romanian parents

Romanian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

5 years' residence in Romania

8 years' residence

4 years' residence (EU citizens)

Yes[43]

Slovakia Slovakia

Persons born in Slovakia who:

Slovak nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

After 5 years' residence in Slovakia, and living in Slovakia without any immigration restrictions at the

time of application

8 years' residence (5 years until a permanent residence is acquired plus 3 years of permanent

residence)

Dual citizenship is permitted to Slovak citizens who acquire a second citizenship by birth or

through marriage; and to foreign nationals who apply for Slovak citizenship and meet the requirements

of the Citizenship Act.[44][45]

Slovenia Slovenia

A child born in Slovenia is a Slovenian citizen if either parent is a Slovenian citizen. Where the child is

born outside Slovenia the child will be automatically Slovenian if:

both parents are Slovenian citizens; or

one parent is Slovenian and the other parent is unknown, is of unknown citizenship or is stateless.

A person born outside Slovenia with one Slovenian parent who is not Slovenian automatically may

acquire Slovenian citizenship through:

an application for registration as a Slovenian citizen made at any time before age 36; or

taking up permanent residence in Slovenia before age 18.

Children adopted by Slovenian citizens may be granted Slovenian citizenship.

Slovenian nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

A person of "Slovenian origin" up to the fourth generation in direct descent or a former Slovenian

citizen may be naturalised without any residence requirements.

A person who is married to a Slovenian citizen for at least two years may be naturalised after one

year's residence in Slovenia

A total of 10 years residence in Slovenia, including 5 years continuous residence before the application

Dual citizenship is generally permitted in Slovenia, except for certain persons seeking to become

Slovenian citizens by naturalisation they are to renounce any foreign citizenship (the requirement to

renounce foreign citizenship may be waived upon special application).

Spain Spain

Persons born in Spain who:

are stateless, or

are foundlings

Children of Spanish citizens

1[46] year of marriage to a Spanish citizen and residence in Spain

10 years' residence

5 years' residence (refugees)

2 years' residence (for nationals of Iberoamerica, Andorra, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea, Portugal, or

if the individual is a Sephardi Jew)

1 year's residence (persons born in Spain)

Yes (if a Spanish citizen by descent/origin); if naturalising in an Iberoamerican country, Spanish—and

EU citizenship—is "dormant" until the return to Spain; see Multiple citizenship.

No (if a naturalised Spanish citizen, unless from Iberoamerica, Andorra, Philippines, Equatorial Guinea

or Portugal)

Sweden Sweden[47]

Persons born in Sweden who:

are stateless, or

are foundlings (canceled if parents found)

Swedish nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

Conditions

[show]

3 years' marriage in case residing in Sweden, 10 years in case living abroad with a Swedish spouse and

has 'strong ties' to Sweden, by family visits and such

5 years normal residence permit(not the time limited residence/work permit/Study Permit) and must

hold Swedish permanent residence permit at the time of applying or person with a visa intended for

settlement in Sweden with 5 years residence in Sweden.

2 years if citizen of a Nordic country (i.e. Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway)[48]

Yes

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Persons born in United Kingdom who:

see: "British by birth"

British nationality is acquired by descent under one of the following conditions:

see: "British by descent"

6 years' residence (must be without any immigration restrictions on date of application)

6 years' residence (the last year of which without any immigration restrictions)

Yes

Danish opt-out

Further information: Opt-outs in the European Union

Denmark obtained four opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty following the treaty's initial rejection in a

1992 referendum. The opt-outs are outlined in the Edinburgh Agreement and concern the EMU (as

above), the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) and the

citizenship of the European Union. The citizenship opt-out stated that European citizenship did not

replace national citizenship; this opt-out was rendered meaningless when the Amsterdam Treaty

adopted the same wording for all members. The policy of recent Danish governments has been to hold

referenda to abolish these opt outs, including formally abolishing the citizenship opt out which is still

technically active even if redundant.

Home EU Citizenship

Share

EU Citizenship

The legal concept of citizenship of the (European) Union was formally introduced into the EC Treaty in

1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht. It is now addressed in Part II of the Treaty on the Functioning of the

European Union (Articles 20-24). Citizenship is also given a formal constitutional status in the EU legal

order, through its inclusion in Article 9 of the Treaty of European Union which provides that "Every

national of a Member State shall be a citizen of the Union. Citizenship of the Union shall be additional to

and not replace national citizenship.”

Accordingly, the status is determined by reference to Member State nationality: all (and only) Member

State nationals are European Citizens. Member States have a largely unfettered power to determine the

scope of their own nationality law, and thus (collectively) to control who are the citizens of the

European Union. However, since the ruling of the CJEU in 2010 in the case Janko Rottmann v Freistaat

Bayern, it has been confirmed that Member States must have due regard to the status of European

Citizenship when determining matters of nationality.

European Citizens enjoy a bundle of legal rights by virtue of their status. The vast majority of these rights

are enjoyed by mobile European Citizens who have exercised rights of free movement throughout the

Union. Amongst the most important of these are electoral rights. A limited number of rights may be

relied upon by European Citizens against their Member State of nationality in the absence of cross-

border movement. The decision of the CJEU in Ruiz Zambrano v Office National de L'emploi, in which a

Member State was required to grant a work permit to the third-country national carer of a European

Citizen who had yet to exercise his right of free movement throughout the Union, so as not to deprive

the European Citizen of the genuine enjoyment of the substance of his rights, proved a significant

development in this regard.

This section of the website contains a selection of legislation, policy documents, case law, publications

and references concerning European Citizenship. The selected documents are intended to reflect central

developments in the status of European Citizenship. They encompass, in particular, documents relevant

to the relationship between national and European Citizenship and to the exercise of the electoral rights

enjoyed by European Citizens.

Share Question

Twitter • 14

Facebook • 98

Google+

Related Topics

The World

Countries

Comparing Countries

Immigration

Immigration Law

What EU country has the easiest citizenship requirements?

Ideally a country that a well educated person could immigrate to without a significant financial

investment.

7 Answers

Quora User

Quora User, Immigrant in the UK.

Quora User has 40+ answers in European Union.

In many European countries where ius sanguinis is the general guideline for citizenship, ancestors from

that country will significantly help you obtaining citizenship. Alternatively, you might be coming from a

former colony or comparable cases. But you did not mention anything about those options, so I will

suppose that this is not the case here.

In general, you need to establish residency in your target country first and this might prove the main

hurdle on your way to a EU citizenship. Marriage or finding a sufficiently high-paid job are your best

shots. Substantial financial investments (read: investing in big projects, opening businesses) are not

necessary, they could however give you an easy way to obtain residency in most countries. The rules

have been somewhat harmonized in the EU but they are still varying a lot and change fast so you will

have to look them up. As stated, the ease of establishing residency could very well be the decisive factor

at any given point in time (e.g. depending on the different countries' current job markets etc.).

However, to get to your question, let us assume that you can get residency by virtue of your high

education (and languages you speak maybe) somehow in any country by trying hard enough to get a job

there. Then the time needed for naturalization is the crucial point.

Here, Belgium used to be your best (i.e. quickest) bet as it took only 3 years of residency and it allows

dual citizenship, if that is relevant to you. This has since been changed (thanks for the update to Kat

Neu) and as of 2013, it is with 5 years still on the lower side of European citizenship laws but much more

aligned with Sweden, France, the UK, Malta, Cyprus and a number of Eastern European countries. The

following data is from 2009 with a few updates by me and according to comments here (includes non-

EU Schengen states by the way, depending on your goals they also could be sufficient).

Austria: A permanent residence in the country during 10 years is required. Dual citizenship is NOT

allowed.

Belgium: requires 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Bulgaria: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Cyprus: 5 accumulated years of residence in the last 8 years period, dual citizenship allowed.

Czech Republic: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed since 2014.

Denmark: 9 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Estonia: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Finland: 6 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

France: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Germany: 8 years of residence, can be reduced to 7 or even 6 with integration and language

courses. Dual citizenship is NOT allowed. [Not fully accurate, it's allowed for EU countries and there are

exceptions. This might also be subject to change under the new government.]

Greece: 10 years, dual citizenship is allowed.

Hungary: 8 years, dual citizenship is allowed.

Iceland: 7 years, dual citizenship is allowed.

Ireland: Permanent residence in the country during 5 out of 9 years is required. You must be a

resident during the year before applying [thanks Vijay Sankaran]. Dual citizenship is allowed.

Italy: 10 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Latvia: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Lithuania: 10 years of residence are required. Dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Luxembourg: 10 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Malta: 5 years of permanent residence (usually following 5 years of temporary residence as noted

by Bence Zakonyi), dual citizenship is allowed.

Netherlands: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed [exceptions are common as noted

by Jeannine van der Linden].

Norway: 7 of the last 10 years, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Poland: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is NOT allowed.

Portugal: 6 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Romania: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Slovakia: 8 years of residence are required. Dual citizenship is NOT

allowed any more [thanks Quora User].

Slovenia: 10 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Spain: 10 years of residence are required. This requirement can be reduced to 2 years (but not

waived) in case of nationals from a former colony of Spain (it covers a number of Latin American

countries and the Philippines). Dual citizenship is allowed for the latter group only [thanks Quora User].

Sweden: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed.

Switzerland: 12 years of residence (time between age 10 and 20 counts twice), dual citizenship is

allowed.

United Kingdom: 5 years of residence, dual citizenship is allowed. Paradoxically, 6 years for EU/EEA

citizens - and everyone not free of "immigration time restrictions" 12 months prior to applying [thanks

Ashley Connor].

One general note about dual citizenship in EU countries: There is a EU directive that no member state

can make an EU citizen from a different member state give up their passports. So, in that case you can

have dual citizenship even if one of the two countries does not normally allow it.

Original source (heavily edited using own research and the help of many Quorans): http://www.isla-

offshore.com/sec...

145,483 views • 114 upvotes • Updated 29 Jul

Downvote

Comments14+

More Answers Below.

Related Questions

How do the drivers license requirements in the EU/EEA compare to US requirements? How do these

requirements impact traffic safety for EU count...

Are there any countries in the EU where it is legal to purchase citizenship?

On which country is it easy to get a citizenship in Europe?

What are the easiest countries to get citizenship to?

What is the best advice on taking an EU citizenship?

Filipe A Marques

Filipe A Marques

From the table in the link bellow

Citizenship of the European Union

Germany:

No residence (victims of Nazi persecution)

2 years of marriage and 3 years of continuous residence in Germany

Spain:

1 [42] year of marriage and residence in Spain

2 years' residence (for nationals of Iberoamerica, Andorra,

wikipedia.org

Philippines, Equatorial Guinea,Portugal, or if the individual is a Sephardi Jew)

Belgium:

2 years' residence (stateless persons)

Slovenia:

A person who is married to a Slovenian citizen for at least 2 years may be naturalised after one year's

residence in Slovenia

Visa/Green cards:

Blue Card (European Union)

Denmark:

Danish Greencard scheme

The Greencard scheme

Portugal:

Visa Gold Scheme:

Portal SEF

Portugal Investor Visa | Residence Visa Europe

27,618 views • 3 upvotes • Written 11 Dec, 2014

Downvote

Comment

Anonymous

Anonymous

I read in the paper this week that the Spanish government is offering full residency for foreign property

investors due to the large number of abandoned homes. You could become a resident of Spanish for as

little as a $200k investment and considering that it comes with a place to live, it's not a bad deal at all.

35,445 views • 17 upvotes • Written 9 Dec, 2012

Downvote

Comments4+

Param Deep Singh

Param Deep Singh, Signal Engineer

Check this link, another similar question answered by Quora User.

What EU country has the easiest citizenship requirements?

Seems that it would help.

6,030 views • Written 30 Jun, 2012

Downvote

Comment

Judith Meyer

Judith Meyer, European

The countries of the European Union are still based on heritage. They do not intend to make it easy for

immigrants to join the nation, even if work visas are easier to get now. The easiest way to get a passport

for one of the EU countries is to have a parent or grandparent from there, or to marry a local.

4,836 views • Written 7 Jun, 2012

Downvote

Comment

Paolo Lim

Paolo Lim

That's a bit tough. From what I understand though, some countries have a three-year path to citizenship

from the time the migrant first settles, such as Spain. However, this 'express' route is limited to existing

nationals of selected ex-colonies such as the Philippines and a few Latin American nations.

19,470 views • 1 upvote • Written 31 Jul, 2014

Downvote

Comment

Kelly Gordon

Kelly Gordon

Latvia apparently has the lowest investment requirement for a residency visa, that being to start a

business that generates several thousand dollars in profit each year. Their Income Tax rate is one of the

lowest, somewhere between 10-15%.

Spain does seem to require the lowest investment in regard to owning property, but their tax rate

approaches 50% including your global income.

3,241 views • 1 upvote • Written 27 Aug, 2014

Downvote

Comment1

23 Answers Collapsed

Write an answer

Related Questions

What is needed to make the EU citizenship real? Education, media, support from national authorities?

What else?

Which EU country is the easiest to immigrate to?

How can I get a British citizenship as a long-time resident EU worker?

What is the easiest country for a European or United States citizen to get a second passport

(citizenship) in?

Which EU country has the easiest business residency program to apply for?

European Union: What EU country has the quickest route to citizenship for the spouse of an EU

national?

What requirements do need to take EU citizenship in Italy?

What EU countries grant permanent residency to non-EU property owners?

What country has the fastest process to acquire citizenship by living in it?

Which developed country has most lenient residency/ citizenship policy?

Which countries in the EU don't accept dual citizenship?

What countries allow automatic citizenship by marriage?

What are the democratic countries that forbid dual citizenship?

What is the easiest country for a Lebanese person to get a residency permit/citizenship within the EU

to allow easy travel across the EU, and ...

To what EU countries is it easiest for highly skilled (Indian) workers to migrate?

Related Questions

How do the drivers license requirements in the EU/EEA compare to US requirements? How do these

requirements impact traffic...

Are there any countries in the EU where it is legal to purchase citizenship?

On which country is it easy to get a citizenship in Europe?

What are the easiest countries to get citizenship to?

What is the best advice on taking an EU citizenship?

What is needed to make the EU citizenship real? Education, media, support from national authorities?

What else?

Which EU country is the easiest to immigrate to?

How can I get a British citizenship as a long-time resident EU worker?

What is the easiest country for a European or United States citizen to get a second passport

(citizenship) in?

Which EU country has the easiest business residency program to apply for?

What does EU citizenship mean to YOU?

Started 24/02/2014 Future, Global

EU flag_2

The question of citizenship, nationality and identity is in the news constantly these days, from the recent

tensions between Eastern and Western Ukraine to the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence.

In this regard, one interesting development we haven’t discussed yet is the decision of Malta to start

selling passports to foreign nationals. For the modest sum of 650,000 euros, it is now possible to obtain

EU citizenship without ever being required to live in Malta (though applicants are required to invest in

Maltese property and buy government bonds).

By flogging passports on the open market, the Maltese government hopes to bring in an extra 30 million

euros in the first year alone. Interestingly, Malta is not the first country to grant citizenship to non-EU

citizens: Austria, Cyprus, Belgium and Portugal already hand out passports in exchange for investment in

the country. However, Malta is the first country to put a price tag on an EU passport. If citizenship can

be sold, does that undermine the value of the culture, traditions and history of a country? Does it

undermine the idea of ‘European citizenship’? Or is it an entirely sensible way to encourage investment

in Europe?

The granting of citizenship is currently a national competence, meaning the EU cannot force Malta to

stop selling passports. However, Members of the European Parliament have strongly objected to Malta’s

decision, arguing that EU citizenship should not be for sale. Last month, 89% of the Members of the

European Parliament even voted in favor of a resolution limiting the sale of EU citizenship. Among the

4% of members who voted against were Social Democrats, Eurosceptics, and independents. Most of the

Conservatives abstained from voting.

In our debate “Do you feel part of a common European identity?”, one of our readers, Matteo, wrote

that citizenship should only be given to those who share the values, language and tradition of a country.

To get a reaction, we put this comment to Roberta Metsola, a Maltese MEP who sits with the Centre-

Right. How would she respond?

Roberta-MetsolaCitizenship is something that should only be afforded to those who have formed a

genuine link or bond with a Member State. The outright sale of citizenship, with no bond to a country,

runs contrary to European values and should not be happening. One does not necessarily have to speak

the language, but there must be a genuine link that shows a bond with that countr

REVIEW ARTICLE

Europe’s Identity Problem

ADRIAN FAVELL

University of California, Los Angeles

Transnational Identities: Becoming European in the EU

Richard K. Herrmann, Thomas Risse, and Marilynn B. Brewer (Eds)

Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2004, viii

þ

305 pp., £22.95,

ISBN 0-7425-3007-8 (pbk)

Who are the Europeans Now?

Edward Moxon-Browne (Ed.)

Ashgate, Aldershot, 2004, vi

þ

202 pp., £49.95, ISBN 1-84014-429-7

How can we study the EU as a social process? That is, European integration

from the bottom up? The vexing lacuna in EU studies on the social origins

and sources of European integration – that should be of particular interest

to sociologists, social historians, anthropologists and social psychologists, as

well as political scientists interested in society – remains a thinly studied

question. The lack of attention stands in stark contrast with the resolutely

top-down approach of diplomatic historians, legal scholars, public policy

analysts and IR theorists, who dominate the field – and our understanding

of European integration.

Awareness that there is a ‘bottom-up’ question to be asked, however, is

growing. For many, the question must mean talking somehow about the

‘identity’ of European citizens: how nominal EU passport holders might

become (and feel) truly European. Somewhere in the mid to late 1990s, the

question of ‘European identity’ became a compelling – and lucrative –

research topic. Nagged by the sense that someone ought to take seriously

Jean Monnet’s oft-quoted, but little substantiated, comment that European

integration should have begun with culture not economy, and more directly

by the threatening rhetoric about the EU’s democratic deficit and emotional

disconnect with its citizens, the EU institutions have ever since vigorously

promoted academic work in this area. Some Eurobarometer questions seem

to exist uniquely to offer easy, ready-made data for political scientists and

others to churn through the identity question. The problematic of

‘European identity’ is born here: a normatively charged, methodologically

West European Politics,

Vol. 28, No. 5, 1109 – 1116, November 2005

ISSN 0140-2382 Print/1743-9655 Online

ª

2005 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/01402380500311863

unclear search for a transnational ‘sociological’ foundation, to what might

be otherwise an irredeemably idealist political construction. One thing is

clear. The EU institutions may as yet have failed to convincingly construct a

European population in its own image. But with its multiple arms of

university funding in Europe, the US, and further afield, they have been

spectacularly successful in constructing a European community of EU

scholars, hooked on this kind of pre-packaged Euro-data and Euro-agenda.

It is the self-styled ‘social constructivists’ in IR who have taken up the

baton of studying European identity most keenly. Influenced by critical

theory and the ever burgeoning study of ‘social identities’ by scholars of race

and ethnicity, a large number of younger EU scholars have embraced an

idealist, hermeneutic vision of politics in the EU, sharply at odds with the

dominantly materialist, methodologically individualist, drive of mainstream

political science. A central part of the agenda is to take political socialisation

seriously once again: to open up the black box of where preferences come

from, and to emphasise the idea that institutions and identities can construct

and manipulate political desires, beyond the determination of individual

rationality. They also open the door to using something ‘sociological’ or

‘psychological’ to address those puzzling residual issues that arise out of the

less rational, collective, emotional dimensions of politics, particularly those

of an ethnic, racial or nationalist kind.

A leading example of the constructivist turn in IR was Peter Katzenstein’s

influential rehabilitation of the ‘sociological’ approach in international

security studies, particularly the invocation that ‘culture’ – conceived in

terms of ‘norms’ and ‘identity’ – can sometimes structure and determine the

behaviour of states (Katzenstein 1996). Another is the monumental recent

systematisation of the ‘social theory of international politics’ by Alexander

Wendt (Wendt 1999). The problem is that these versions of the ‘sociological’

in political science – what Katzenstein bluntly describes as ‘rummaging in the

graveyard of sociological studies’ – offer a wholly arcane version of what a

‘sociological’ approach to politics might in fact be. The ghost of Talcott

Parsons rides again, and a neo-Durkheimian ontology of social facts,

collective consciousness, and functionalist explanations is embraced anew.

Sociology apparently is equated exclusively with abstract and dated

structuralist or structurationist social theories that are of little relevance

now to the empirical core of the discipline. Parsons, on the other hand, would

be very comfortable with many of the ideas and culture based versions of new

institutionalism, for example. The resultant debates in IR all look mighty

quaint and peculiar to most practising contemporary sociologists.

Social constructivists also love to show off their philosophical learning,

but the obsession with ‘social identities’ calls for closer examination on this

score too. The fundamental philosophical question about identity is not a

question of ethnicity or culture, but the puzzle of ‘personal identity’. How is

any kind of ‘individual’ identity possible, once we move to the historical or

sociological mode of understanding, in which persons are in fact

1110

A. Favell

exhaustively determined by the (contextually defined, therefore ever-

changing) social roles and positions that they are found in. The

philosopher’s unfashionable answer will be a transcendental one: that it is

rationality

, perhaps of a richer, more autonomous Kantian variety than

homo æconomicus

, which guarantees the identity (and freedom) of the

modern self. Critical theory, of course, taught the postmodern generation to

be unimpressed by this kind of reasoning. The constructivists, who are

theoretically ambitious, instead have staked everything on an anti-

individualist, anti-rational actor crusade that threatens – borrowing a

phrase from the philosopher, Martin Hollis, who is often cited against the

grain by these theorists – to be as much about the social

destruction

of

rationality as about its social construction. The assumptions of mainstream

political science may deserve a good philosophical challenge, perhaps even

one that quotes continental philosophers. But the constructivist turn to

‘identity’ is surely a step backwards. It is high time that the social sciences go

‘beyond identity’ in this sense, and the dubious group based social

ontologies it invokes (see Brubaker and Cooper 2000). For all its seductive

appeal, this is an ordinary language term now irredeemably undercut by

conceptual confusion, philosophical sloppiness, and the normative taint of

too much political correctness.

The Moxon-Browne volume offers little comfort on this score. The title,

blurb and some of the contributions suggest a concerted collective reflection

on European identity(ies). But the concept of ‘identity’ is nowhere defined,

and the book turns out to be the worst kind of book on European

integration: a string of conference papers that are mostly either descriptive

legal and policy commentaries, or normative opinion pieces about the

failures of European citizenship and democracy in the EU. To claim the

book has been ‘edited’ is to stretch descriptions. There is no introduction, no

conclusion, no internal structure or ordering; some papers belong in a

different book about ethnicity or nationalism; and chapters range from a

brief conference intervention of 7–8 pages, to an apparently untrimmed MA

thesis of 40 pages. Fatally, there is not even a bio page. The papers

apparently – judging by citations – were all written no later than 1998.

Ashgate is doing itself and the authors involved no favours in publishing

such an unfocused, outdated and inessential volume.

The Herrmann, Risse and Brewer project is an altogether more sustained,

organised and serious effort, which has seen a lengthy period of development

at the European University Institute and Ohio State University. It is

thoroughly interdisciplinary, with very well chosen contributors, and

underpinned by a psychology-based understanding of ‘identity’ – thereby

dodging (through neglect) the charge that this is very poor sociology. The

focus on putative ‘transnational identities’ in the EU turns out to be a

nominal unifying factor, not one based on common methodology or

theoretical commitments. The editors are at pains to stress that the group is

also very divided on whether the EU has been successful in encouraging

Europe’s Identity Problem

1111

identification with its goals. Yet the various attempts to operationalise the

general question of studying European identity are highly instructive.

The volume leads off with three psychology papers – by Glynis Breakwell,

Emanuele Castano, and the team of Ame

lie Memmendey and Sven

Waldzus – using experimental methodology to study the different psycho-

logical mechanisms and circumstances that might lead to changes in identity

relating to a European collectivity. It is encouraging to see these sharply

defined empirical studies, which have methodological interest beyond the

typical EU studies’ audience. A second section takes a more familiar line, of

seeking out prototypical European actors – the most highly Europeanised

figures working in the corridors of Brussels – to see how much these elite

actors embrace the European project. Again, these are three very well

developed empirical studies, by Brigit Laffan, Ruth Wodak and Eugenia

Siapera, which offer detailed analysis of the difficult national and transna-

tional roles that these actors end up having to combine.

Part three shifts notionally from ‘elites’ to real folk, but characteristically

here the methodologies get more imperious and distant from what people

actually do or are. Both the team of Jack Citrin and John Sides, and Michael

Bruter, offer very competent, and technically sophisticated analyses of

popular attitudes on the EU, the former from Eurobarometer data, the

second from the author’s own cross-national design. Citrin and Sides is state-

of-the-art US political opinion research, and a comprehensive run through

what Eurobarometer tells us about the growing aggregate approval towards

the EU. Bruter reveals a clear distinction within the perception of European

identity, when seen in a civic sense (in terms of laws and political structures),

compared with when the question is posed of what it means to be a European

culturally. This is a valuable finding, although we are strictly limited in

Bruter’s study to what a slice of university students (and a control group of

‘non-students’) in each country happen to be thinking and saying about

Europe when asked. Attitudinal measures will never be a definitive measure

of Europeanised behaviour, especially when only poorly representative.

The final contribution by Ulrike Meinhof makes clear why

Eurobarometer-style data and analysis is weak. This is a quite different

kind of project, an example of genuinely grounded phenomenological

research, that has actually gone out and listened to people – in this case,

residents of various problematic border areas in Central Europe – and

looked to see if they in fact do think about Europe in everyday contexts. It

turns out

not

, until they are provoked by leading questions. Meinhof quite

rightly then raises the big methodological issue: that with ‘European identity’

scholars are fishing for something that in fact does not occur naturally. This

is academic constructivism indeed. Disappointingly, Meinhof’s startling

challenge to the bigger research project is only briefly discussed by the editors

in their comments.

An even bigger problem for the volume is this: why are we are talking

about all these quite different ‘dependent variables’ as all measuring

1112

A. Favell

‘identity’ anyway? Richard Herrmann and Marilynn Brewer make a very

heroic attempt in their detailed and useful introduction, to clarify

analytically what the question of ‘European identity’ might mean as an

empirical object. The problem is that they are trying to clarify a very loose

and baggy concept that in fact may be quite redundant when you look at the

variety of ways it is operationalised. Instead they try to have it all ways.

Inter alia

, they suggest that European identity is conscious (emotional)

identification with Europe; that it is awareness of Europe (knowledge about

its institutions, facts, etc.); that it is electoral participation in European

elections; that it is an attitudinal measure of whether Europe is a good thing;

and that it is whether someone is objectively a member of a European

community (big or small ‘c’). They suggest that identity is conscious

identification, although these two concepts are clearly not synonymous in all

circumstances; but then they also suggest that identity could be a cognitive

function of political behaviour – despite the fact that shifting explanation to

the cognitive level (i.e., accounting for why individuals have predispositions

in their heads to think in group based terms), takes us beyond identity as a

group based thing.

The piece is full of similar confusions. The various operationalisations are

for sure all valid ways of measuring interesting things relevant to the EU,

but are they measuring the same thing? It is not at all clear they are, or that

imposing a conceptual ‘identity’ on them as the search for ‘European

identity’, adds anything but confusion. No, they are simply different

possible ways of measuring knowledge of Europe, participation in Europe,

opinions about Europe, perceptions of Europe, etc. To read ‘identity’ into

this is an unwarranted jump. A similar thought arises with the key analytical

distinction that all the editors identify between nested, cross-cutting and

separate identities. But why reify the boundaries that can be supposedly

drawn around such ‘groups’, instead of looking at breaking down these

social structures into networks of unbounded individual relations, some of

which are linked, others which are not?

The political science on ‘identities’ is here apparently well behind the

theoretical times from the most up-to-date social science perspective, which

has long since moved to talking about networks and cognition. Instead,

these authors merely sustain loose talk of social groups and social

boundaries that is born of the bewitchment of ordinary language – and

outside political pressures. For the language of ‘identities’ is above all else

the province of politicians and pundits: the folks who invoke identities

precisely to build collective power, and to blur and mystify the underlying

reasons why individuals engage in collective social cooperation, interperso-

nal relations, or personal identification. We might hope to find a more

robust defence of the project in the conclusion, but here Thomas Risse

settles with summarising the empirical findings of the volume and other

related studies. He comes to the quite reasonable conclusion that worries

about European identity have been overstated because they fail to

Europe’s Identity Problem

1113

appreciate the empirical evidence that European identity (whatever it is) is

not necessarily incompatible for many people with powerful national

identifications.

Let us grant for a moment the volume’s conceit that European identity is

indeed measurable (somehow), and can be analysed as the dependent

variable of other structural variables. How it is created and what the social

mechanisms are that lead to its emergence

ought

to have been the key finding

of the book, as Risse notes. What is striking is how little mainstream

sociological analysis figures in the book as a tool for addressing this central

explanatory question. The editors appear to equate ‘sociological’ ap-

proaches methodologically with discourse analysis (as practised by Ruth

Wodak and Ulrike Meinhof), a woeful misrepresentation, which is a bit like

suggesting that all psychologists use psychoanalytic methods. Sociologists in

fact are mostly quite hostile to discourse analysis, for the good reason that

they are generally seeking to find underlying social structural causes for the

way people talk, perceive, think or behave. Discourse (and texts) are merely

the froth on the surface of things. Any basic multivariate analysis of

standard sociological variables, broken into individual-level data about

gender, ethnicity, and (especially) class and occupation in the European

population, would immediately break open the tired national versus

transnational problematic of nearly all EU identity research. Citrin and

Sides offer a couple of pages analysing the effects of education, age and

income on European attitudes, based on the very limited categories offered

by Eurobarometer data, but so much more could be done. In the rest of the

book, the only stratification imagined to be running through this population

is the extremely crude contrast between so-called ‘elites’ and ‘ordinary’

citizens; the only variation conceived is national in origin. These are, of

course, the same unexamined theoretical oppositions that structure all the

Eurosceptic debates about the democratic deficit. National variation on the

EU is what keeps European politicians awake at night in anticipation of

referenda rejections, but it is a clumsy aggregate that hides all the other ways

that we might parse the European population, which is already hugely

diverse

within

any given nation-state. It is obvious that finer grained,

analytically specified, social class and occupational distinctions, particularly

within that most important segment of the European population – the

middle classes – might be hugely revealing of the structure of attitudes about

Europe.

The sociological point can be pressed further, beyond the limited reach of

attitudinal research. The fundamental unit of society is not an opinion or a

belief; it is an action (or interaction). Of course, we can

ask

people the

‘identity’ question – how do you feel about the EU; does ‘being European’

now come in third, fourth or fifth behind your national ‘identity’, regional

belonging, favourite football team, or preferred brand of training shoe

(and other modern ‘identities’ that we slip in and out of)? – but the blunt

truth is that this extra question is quite simply redundant once you have

1114

A. Favell

good behavioural data that tells you what people actually

do

in an

integrating Europe. Political scientists think of voting and ‘revealed

preferences’, of course, but ‘being European’ nowadays is as much likely

to be about this, as it is about shopping across borders, buying property

abroad, handling a common currency, looking for work in a foreign city,

taking holidays in new countries, buying cheap airline tickets, planning

international rail travel, joining cross-national associations—and a thou-

sand other actions facilitated by the European free movement accords.

These ways of being European (that can all be counted, or interrogated for

meaning), are notably also enjoyed by many who overtly profess themselves

to be Eurosceptic or to have no European identity at all. Thought of this

way, we may indeed discover ‘social identities’ that are genuinely

transnational, if they turn out to be rooted behaviourally in new forms of

cross-national action and interaction.

Such action may well be spatially as well as socially structured. Matt

Gabel’s work has, for example, affirmed that spatial factors (i.e., residence

near a border), is linked via experience to positive attitudes on the EU

(Gabel 1998). This confirms the older tale that historians such as Hartmut

Kaelble have told about European integration being driven by a regional

core, traceable in the regionally minded urban populations along the

central spine of Western Europe, as much as the leading pro-European

politicians who came from these parts. In other words, the psychological

superstructure – what people think of, and retrospectively rationalise when

asked, as their ‘identity’ – rests on behavioural foundations, that actually

might prove to be very material and interests based to begin with.

The turnover of paradigms in political science moves fast, but before the

fad of social constructivism blows over, it may at least have served to

generate a genuine sociological and/or psychological curiosity about the

providence of preferences in political behaviour. Putting the really old

fashioned question of political socialisation back on the table is surely a

good thing (although the conspicuously growing power of the corporate

media in all democracies is a more pressing reason why this question is

back). This will be an academic achievement in itself. From a politically

concerned point of view, however, the misplaced theorising about European

identity, and these wasted academic opportunities to do something

genuinely

sociological about European integration, weigh more heavily.

Concerns about defining European culture, or a European ‘constitutional

patriotism’, have played royally into the conservative agenda of reifying

contestable elements of the European construction that were always better

relegated to the sphere of privatised diversity – the mistake of trying to

define who we all think we are, rather than what we all actually do. They

have also publicised and sustained the populist, idealist ‘debate’ over

democratic legitimacy, and taken the EU away from the very real, material

achievements that it has delivered to citizens: expectations of peace;

economic prosperity, stability and security; the opportunities of labour,

Europe’s Identity Problem

1115

housing and consumer markets beyond the nation-state; and the promise of

a thoroughly de-nationalised individualism, anchored in rationally designed

institutions, and rights based legal protections. Questions about what it

means to be a European citizen, and the wholly overblown focus on

democracy in the EU, are secondary to these everyday ways of being

European. This ought to be a thin but sufficient form of European ‘identity’,

if that is what we must call it in shorthand. In a free modern society – to

return to the underlying Kantian message here – the only ‘identity’ worth

sharing politically is one that each and every citizen can adjudicate as

individually self-beneficial and self-compatible, and (assuming they can step

out of their given social role and ‘identities’ for a moment) as ‘just’ to

themselves and others. All other notions of European identity take the EU

into emotional, non-rational terrain, upon which the historical nation-state

will never be defeated.

References

Brubaker, R. and F. Cooper (2000). ‘Beyond ‘‘Identity’’.’

Theory and Society

, 29:1, 1–47.

Gabel, M. (1998).

Interests and Integration: Market Liberalization, Public Opinion, and

European Union.

Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Katzenstein, P. (ed.) (1996).

The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World

Politics.

New York: Columbia University Press.

Wendt, A. (1999).

The Social Theory of International Politics.

Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Europe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the continent. For the political union, see European Union. For other uses, see

Europe (disambiguation).

Europe Europe orthographic Caucasus Urals boundary (with borders).svg

Area 10,180,000 km2 (3,930,000 sq mi)[n] (6th)

Population 742,452,000[n] (2013; 3rd)

Pop. density 72.9/km2 (188/sq mi) (2nd)

Demonym European

Countries 50 (and 6 states with limited recognition) (list of countries)

Languages ~225 languages[1]

Time zones UTC to UTC+5

Internet TLD .eu (European Union)

Largest cities

Largest metropolitan areas in Europe[2][unreliable source?]

Russia Moscow

United Kingdom London

Turkey Istanbul (transcontinental)[3]

France Paris

Spain Madrid

Russia St. Petersburg

Italy Milan

Germany Ruhr

Spain Barcelona

Europe (Listeni/ˈjʊərəp/ or /ˈjɜrəp/[4]) is a continent that comprises the westernmost peninsula of

Eurasia. It is generally divided from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains,

the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the Bosporus waterway connecting the Black and Aegean

Seas.[5]

Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean

Sea to the south, and the Black Sea and its connected waterways to the southeast. Yet the borders of

Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary, as the primarily physiographic term

"continent" also incorporates cultural and political elements.

Europe is the world's second-smallest continent by surface area, covering about 10,180,000 square

kilometres (3,930,000 sq mi) or 2% of the Earth's surface and about 6.8% of its land area. Of Europe's

approximately 50 countries, Russia is by far the largest by both area and population, taking up 40% of

the continent (although the country has territory in both Europe and Asia), while Vatican City is the

smallest. Europe is the third-most populous continent after Asia and Africa, with a population of 739–

743 million or about 11% of the world's population.[6]

Europe, in particular ancient Greece, is the birthplace of Western

culture.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during

the migration period, marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of an era known as the

"middle ages". The Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led the "old continent", and

eventually the rest of the world, to the modern era. From this period onwards, Europe played a

predominant role in global affaires. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European nations controlled

at various times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania, and the majority of Asia.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain around the end of the 18th century, gave rise to

radical economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe, and eventually the wider world.

Demographic growth meant that, by 1900, Europe's share of the world's population was 25%.[20] Both

world wars were largely focused upon Europe, greatly contributing to a decline in Western European

dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the United States and Soviet Union took

prominence.[21] During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the

west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall.

European integration led to the formation of the European Union, a political entity that lies between a

confederation and a federation.[22] The EU was born in the West but she has been expanding eastward

since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of the European Union, the Euro, is the most

commonly used among Europeans and the EU's Schengen Area abolishes border and immigration

controls among most of its member states.

Contents

1 Definition

2 Etymology

3 History

3.1 Prehistory

3.2 Classical antiquity

3.3 Early Middle Ages

3.4 Middle Ages

3.5 Early modern period

3.6 18th and 19th centuries

3.7 20th century to the present

4 Geography

4.1 Climate

4.2 Geology

4.2.1 Geological history

4.3 Biodiversity

5 Political geography

6 Integration

7 Economy

7.1 Pre–1945: Industrial growth

7.2 1945–1990: The Cold War

7.3 1991–2007: Integration and reunification

7.4 2008–2010: Recession

8 Demographics

8.1 Language

8.2 Religion

9 Culture

10 See also

11 Notes

12 References

13 External links

Definition

Further information: List of transcontinental countries and Boundaries between continents

Clickable map of Europe, showing one of the most commonly used continental boundaries[23]

Key: blue: states which straddle the border between Europe and Asia; green: states not geographically in

Europe, but closely associated with the continent

Alb.

And.

Austria

Armenia

Azer.

Belarus

Belgium

BiH

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech

Rep.

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Georgia

Greece

Greenland (Dk)

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

S. Mar.

Kazakhstan

Kos.

Latvia

Liech.

Lithuania

Lux.

Mac.

Malta

Moldova

Mon.

Mont.

Neth.

Norway

Svalbard (Nor)

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Russia

Novaya

Zemlya

(Rus.)

Serbia

Slovakia

Slo.

Spain

Sweden

Switz-

erland

Turkey

Ukraine

United

Kingdom

Far. (Dk)

Vat.

Adr-

iatic

Sea

Arctic Ocean

Baltic

Sea

Aegean

Sea

Barents Sea

Bay of

Biscay

Black

Sea

Azov

Sea

Caspian

Sea

Celtic

Sea

Greenland Sea

Baffin Bay

Gulf of

Cádiz

Ligurian

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

North

Atlantic

Ocean

North

Sea

Norwegian

Sea

Strait of Gibraltar

Reconstruction of Herodotus' world map

A medieval T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of Noah — Asia

to Sem (Shem), Europe to Iafeth (Japheth), and Africa to Cham (Ham)

Early modern depiction of Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical Europa of the 8th century

before Christ.

The use of the term "Europe" has developed gradually throughout history.[24][25] In antiquity, the

Greek historian Herodotus mentioned that the world had been divided by unknown persons into three

parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya (Africa), with the Nile and the River Phasis forming their boundaries—

though he also states that some considered the River Don, rather than the Phasis, as the boundary

between Europe and Asia.[26] Europe's eastern frontier was defined in the 1st century by geographer

Strabo at the River Don.[27] The Book of Jubilees described the continents as the lands given by Noah to

his three sons; Europe was defined as stretching from the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar,

separating it from North Africa, to the Don, separating it from Asia.[28]

A cultural definition of Europe as the lands of Latin Christendom coalesced in the 8th century, signifying

the new cultural condominium created through the confluence of Germanic traditions and Christian-

Latin culture, defined partly in contrast with Byzantium and Islam, and limited to northern Iberia, the

British Isles, France, Christianized western Germany, the Alpine regions and northern and central

Italy.[29] The concept is one of the lasting legacies of the Carolingian Renaissance: "Europa" often

figures in the letters of Charlemagne's court scholar, Alcuin.[30] This division—as much cultural as

geographical—was used until the Late Middle Ages, when it was challenged by the Age of

Discovery.[31][32][why?] The problem of redefining Europe was finally resolved in 1730 when, instead

of waterways, the Swedish geographer and cartographer von Strahlenberg proposed the Ural Mountains

as the most significant eastern boundary, a suggestion that found favour in Russia and throughout

Europe.[33]

Europe is now generally defined by geographers as the western peninsula of Eurasia, with its boundaries

marked by large bodies of water to the north, west and south; Europe's limits to the far east are usually

taken to be the Urals, the Ural River, and the Caspian Sea; to the southeast, including the Caucasus

Mountains, the Black Sea and the waterways connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.[34]

Islands are generally grouped with the nearest continental landmass, hence Iceland is generally

considered to be part of Europe, while the nearby island of Greenland is usually assigned to North

America. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions based on sociopolitical and cultural differences.

Cyprus is closest to Anatolia (or Asia Minor), but is usually considered part of Europe both culturally and

politically and currently is a member state of the EU. Malta was considered an island of North Africa for

centuries.[35]

The geographic boundary drawn between Europe and Asia in 1730 follows no international boundaries.

As a result, attempts to organize Europe along political or economic lines have resulted in uses of the

name in a geopolitically limiting way[36] to refer only to the 28 member states of the European Union.

Conversely, Europe has also been used in a very expansive way by the Council of Europe which has 47

member countries,[37] some of which territorially over-reach the Ural and Bosphorus lines to include all

of Russia and Turkey. In addition, people in the British Isles may refer to "continental" or "mainland"

Europe as Europe.[38]

Etymology

Europa and the bull on a Greek vase. Tarquinia Museum, c. 480 BC

In ancient Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess whom Zeus abducted after assuming the

form of a dazzling white bull. He took her to the island of Crete where she gave birth to Minos,

Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. For Homer, Europe (Ancient Greek: Εὐρώπη, Eurṓpē; see also List of

Greek place names) was a mythological queen of Crete, not a geographical designation.

The etymology of Europe is uncertain.[39] One theory suggests that it is derived from the Greek εὐρύς

(eurus), meaning "wide, broad"[40] and ὤψ/ὠπ-/ὀπτ- (ōps/ōp-/opt-), meaning "eye, face,

countenance",[41] hence Eurṓpē, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" (compare with glaukōpis (γλαυκῶπις

'grey-eyed') Athena or boōpis (βοὠπις 'ox-eyed') Hera). Broad has been an epithet of Earth itself in the

reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion.[42] Another theory suggests that it is based on a Semitic

word such as the Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set"[43] (in reference to the sun), cognate to

Phoenician 'ereb "evening; west" and Arabic Maghreb, Hebrew ma'arav (see also Erebus, PIE *h1regʷos,

"darkness"). However, Martin Litchfield West states that "phonologically, the match between Europa's

name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor".[44]

Whatever the origin of the name of the mythological figure, Εὐρώπη is first used as a geographical term

in the 6th century BC, by Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus. Anaximander placed

the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni) in the Caucasus, a

convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BC.[45] But the convention received by the

Middle Ages and surviving into modern usage is that of the Roman era used by Roman era authors such

as Posidonius,[46] Strabo[47] and Ptolemy,[48] who took the Tanais (the modern Don River) as the

boundary. The term "Europe" is first used for a cultural sphere in the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th

century. From that time, the term designated the sphere of influence of the Western Church, as

opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox churches and to the Islamic world. The modern convention,

enlarging the area of "Europe" somewhat to the east and the southeast, develops in the 19th century.

Most major world languages use words derived from "Europa" to refer to the "continent" (peninsula).

Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu (歐洲); a similar Chinese-derived term Ōshū (欧州?) is also

sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, Ōshū Rengō (欧州連

合?), despite the katakana Yōroppa (ヨーロッパ?) being more commonly used. However, in some

Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan (land of the Franks) is used casually in referring

to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa.[49]

History

Main article: History of Europe

Prehistory

Main article: Prehistoric Europe

The Lady of Vinča, neolithic pottery from Serbia

The Nebra sky disk from Bronze Age Germany

Homo erectus georgicus, which lived roughly 1.8 million years ago in Georgia, is the earliest hominid to

have been discovered in Europe.[50] Other hominid remains, dating back roughly 1 million years, have

been discovered in Atapuerca, Spain.[51] Neanderthal man (named after the Neandertal valley in

Germany) appeared in Europe 150,000 years ago and disappeared from the fossil record about 28,000

BC, with this extinction probably due to climate change, and their final refuge being present-day

Portugal. The Neanderthals were supplanted by modern humans (Cro-Magnons), who appeared in

Europe around 43 to 40 thousand years ago.[52]

The European Neolithic period—marked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock,

increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of pottery—began around 7000 BC in Greece

and the Balkans, probably influenced by earlier farming practices in Anatolia and the Near East.[53] It

spread from the Balkans along the valleys of the Danube and the Rhine (Linear Pottery culture) and

along the Mediterranean coast (Cardial culture). Between 4500 and 3000 BC, these central European

neolithic cultures developed further to the west and the north, transmitting newly acquired skills in

producing copper artefacts. In Western Europe the Neolithic period was characterised not by large

agricultural settlements but by field monuments, such as causewayed enclosures, burial mounds and

megalithic tombs.[54] The Corded Ware cultural horizon flourished at the transition from the Neolithic

to the Chalcolithic. During this period giant megalithic monuments, such as the Megalithic Temples of

Malta and Stonehenge, were constructed throughout Western and Southern Europe.[55][56] The

European Bronze Age began c. 3200 BC in Greece.[57]

The European Iron Age began around 1200 BC.[58] Iron Age colonisation by the Greeks and Phoenicians

gave rise to early Mediterranean cities. Early Iron Age Italy and Greece from around the 8th century BC

gradually gave rise to historical Classical antiquity.

Classical antiquity

Main article: Classical antiquity

See also: Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome

The Parthenon in Athens

Ancient Greece was the founding culture of Western civilisation. Western democratic and individualistic

culture are often attributed to Ancient Greece.[59] The Greeks invented the polis, or city-state, which

played a fundamental role in their concept of identity.[60] These Greek political ideals were

rediscovered in the late 18th century by European philosophers and idealists. Greece also generated

many cultural contributions: in philosophy, humanism and rationalism under Aristotle, Socrates and

Plato; in history with Herodotus and Thucydides; in dramatic and narrative verse, starting with the epic

poems of Homer;[59] in drama with Sophocles and Euripides, in medicine with Hippocrates and Galen;

and in science with Pythagoras, Euclid and Archimedes.[61][62][63]

The Roman Empire at its greatest extent

Another major influence came on Europe that would impact Western civilisation from the Roman

Empire which left its mark on law, politics, language, engineering, architecture, government and many

more aspects in western civilisation.[64] During the pax romana, the Roman Empire expanded to

encompass the entire Mediterranean Basin and much of Europe.[65]

Stoicism influenced Roman emperors such as Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, who all

spent time on the Empire's northern border fighting Germanic, Pictish and Scottish tribes.[66][67]

Christianity was eventually legitimised by Constantine I after three centuries of imperial persecution.

Early Middle Ages

Main articles: Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

See also: Dark Ages (historiography) and Age of Migrations

Europe c. 650

Charlemagne's empire in 814: Frankia, Tributaries

During the decline of the Roman Empire, Europe entered a long period of change arising from what

historians call the "Age of Migrations". There were numerous invasions and migrations amongst the

Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Slavs, Avars, Bulgars and, later on,

the Vikings, Pechenegs, Cumans and Magyars.[65] Renaissance thinkers such as Petrarch would later

refer to this as the "Dark Ages".[68] Isolated monastic communities were the only places to safeguard

and compile written knowledge accumulated previously; apart from this very few written records

survive and much literature, philosophy, mathematics, and other thinking from the classical period

disappeared from Western Europe though they were preserved in the east, in the Byzantine Empire.[69]

From the 7th century onwards, Muslim Arabs started to encroach on historically Roman territory. Over

the next centuries Muslim forces took Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily and parts of southern Italy.[70] In the

East, Volga Bulgaria became an Islamic state in the 10th century.[71] Between 711 and 720, most of the

Iberian Peninsula was brought under Muslim rule — save for small areas in the northwest (Asturias) and

largely Basque regions in the Pyrenees. This territory, under the Arabic name Al-Andalus, became part of

the expanding Umayyad empire.

Roland pledges fealty to Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor

Delegations of Croats and Serbs at Byzantine court of Basil I

The unsuccessful second siege of Constantinople (717) weakened the Umayyad dynasty and reduced

their prestige. The Umayyads were then defeated by the Frankish leader Charles Martel at the Battle of

Poitiers in 732, which ended their northward advance.

During the Dark Ages, the Western Roman Empire fell under the control of various tribes. The Germanic

and Slav tribes established their domains over Western and Eastern Europe respectively.[72] Eventually

the Frankish tribes were united under Clovis I.[73] Charlemagne, a Frankish king of the Carolingian

dynasty who had conquered most of Western Europe, was anointed "Holy Roman Emperor" by the Pope

in 800. This led in 962 to the founding of the Holy Roman Empire, which eventually became centred in

the German principalities of central Europe.[74]

East Central Europe saw the creation of Slavic states and the adoption of Christianity (circa 1000 AD).

Powerful West Slavic state of Great Moravia spread its territory all the way south to the Balkan Slavs.

Moravia reached its largest territorial extent under Svatopluk I and caused a series of armed conflicts

with East Francia. Further south, placed between the Frankish Empire, Byzantium and slavicized

Bulgarian Empire, first South Slavic states emerged in the late 7th and 8th century and adopted

Christianity: Serbian Principality (later Kingdom and Empire) and Duchy of Croatia (later Kingdom of

Croatia). To the East, the Kievan Rus expanded from its capital in Kiev to become the largest state in

Europe by the 10th century. In 988, Vladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christianity as the religion of

state.

The predominantly Greek speaking Eastern Roman Empire retroactively became known in the West as

the Byzantine Empire. Its capital was Constantinople. Emperor Justinian I presided over Constantinople's

first golden age: he established a legal code, funded the construction of the Hagia Sophia and brought

the Christian church under state control.[75] During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was the

most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Fatally weakened by the sack of

Constantinople in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84] Byzantium fell in

1453 when it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.[85][86][87]

Middle Ages

Main articles: High Middle Ages, Late Middle Ages and Middle Ages

See also: Medieval demography

The economic growth of Europe around the year 1000, together with the lack of safety on the mainland

trading routes, made possible the development of major commercial routes along the coast of the

Mediterranean Sea. In this context, the growing independence acquired by some coastal cities gave the

Maritime Republics a leading role in the European scene.

Tancred of Sicily and Philip II of France, during the Third Crusade

The Middle Ages on the mainland were dominated by the two upper echelons of the social structure:

the nobility and the clergy. Feudalism developed in France in the Early Middle Ages and soon spread

throughout Europe.[88] A struggle for influence between the nobility and the monarchy in England led

to the writing of the Magna Carta and the establishment of a parliament.[89] The primary source of

culture in this period came from the Roman Catholic Church. Through monasteries and cathedral

schools, the Church was responsible for education in much of Europe.[88]

The Papacy reached the height of its power during the High Middle Ages. An East-West Schism in 1054

split the former Roman Empire religiously, with the Eastern Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire

and the Roman Catholic Church in the former Western Roman Empire. In 1095 Pope Urban II called for a

crusade against Muslims occupying Jerusalem and the Holy Land.[90] In Europe itself, the Church

organised the Inquisition against heretics. In Spain, the Reconquista concluded with the fall of Granada

in 1492, ending over seven centuries of Islamic rule in the Iberian Peninsula.[91]

The sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan in 1238, during the Mongol invasion of Europe.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Pechenegs and

the Cuman-Kipchaks, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested

regions of the north and temporarily halted the expansion of the Rus' state to the south and east.[92]

Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongols.[93] The invaders, who

became known as Tatars, were mostly Turkic-speaking peoples under Mongol suzerainty. They

established the state of the Golden Horde with headquarters in Crimea, which later adopted Islam as a

religion and ruled over modern-day southern and central Russia for more than three centuries.[94][95]

After the collapse of Mongol dominions, the first Romanian states (principalities) emerged in the 14th

century: Moldova and Walachia. Previously, these territories were under the successive control of

Pechenegs and Cumans.[96] From the 12th to the 15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Moscow grew

from a small principality under Mongol rule to the largest state in Europe, overthrowing the Mongols in

1480 and eventually becoming the Tsardom of Russia. The state was consolidated under Ivan III the

Great and Ivan the Terrible, steadily expanding to the east and south over the next centuries.

The Great Famine of 1315–1317 was the first crisis that would strike Europe in the late Middle Ages.[97]

The period between 1348 and 1420 witnessed the heaviest loss. The population of France was reduced

by half.[98][99] Medieval Britain was afflicted by 95 famines,[100] and France suffered the effects of 75

or more in the same period.[101] Europe was devastated in the mid-14th century by the Black Death,

one of the most deadly pandemics in human history which killed an estimated 25 million people in

Europe alone—a third of the European population at the time.[102]

The plague had a devastating effect on Europe's social structure; it induced people to live for the

moment as illustrated by Giovanni Boccaccio in The Decameron (1353). It was a serious blow to the

Roman Catholic Church and led to increased persecution of Jews, foreigners, beggars and lepers.[103]

The plague is thought to have returned every generation with varying virulence and mortalities until the

18th century.[104] During this period, more than 100 plague epidemics swept across Europe.[105]

Early modern period

Main article: Early modern period

See also: Renaissance, Protestant Reformation, Scientific Revolution and Age of Discovery

The School of Athens by Raphael: Contemporaries such as Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci (centre)

are portrayed as classical scholars

The Renaissance was a period of cultural change originating in Florence and later spreading to the rest

of Europe. The rise of a new humanism was accompanied by the recovery of forgotten classical Greek

and Arabic knowledge from monastic libraries, often translated from Arabic into Latin.[106][107][108]

The Renaissance spread across Europe between the 14th and 16th centuries: it saw the flowering of art,

philosophy, music, and the sciences, under the joint patronage of royalty, the nobility, the Roman

Catholic Church, and an emerging merchant class.[109][110][111] Patrons in Italy, including the Medici

family of Florentine bankers and the Popes in Rome, funded prolific quattrocento and cinquecento

artists such as Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci.[112][113]

Political intrigue within the Church in the mid-14th century caused the Western Schism. During this

forty-year period, two popes—one in Avignon and one in Rome—claimed rulership over the Church.

Although the schism was eventually healed in 1417, the papacy's spiritual authority had suffered

greatly.[114]

Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation

The Church's power was further weakened by the Protestant Reformation (1517–1648), initially sparked

by the works of German theologian Martin Luther, an attempt to start a reform within the Church. The

Reformation also damaged the Holy Roman Emperor's influence, as German princes became divided

between Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths.[115] This eventually led to the Thirty Years War (1618–

1648), which crippled the Holy Roman Empire and devastated much of Germany, killing between 25 and

40 percent of its population.[116] In the aftermath of the Peace of Westphalia, France rose to

predominance within Europe.[117]

The 17th century in southern, central and eastern Europe was a period of general decline.[118] Central

and Eastern Europe experienced more than 150 famines in a 200-year period between 1501 to

1700.[119] From the 15th to 18th centuries, when the disintegrating khanates of the Golden Horde were

conquered by Russia, Tatars from the Crimean Khanate frequently raided Eastern Slavic lands to capture

slaves.[120] The Battle of Vienna in 1683 broke the advance of the Ottoman Turks into Europe, and

marked the political hegemony of the Habsburg dynasty in central Europe. The Nogai Horde and Kazakh

Khanate had frequently raided the Slavic-speaking areas of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for at least a

hundred years until the Russian expansion and conquest of most of northern Eurasia (i.e. Eastern

Europe, Central Asia and Siberia).

The Renaissance and the New Monarchs marked the start of an Age of Discovery, a period of

exploration, invention, and scientific development.[121] Among the great figures of the Western

scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries were Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Isaac

Newton.[122] According to Peter Barrett, "It is widely accepted that 'modern science' arose in the

Europe of the 17th century (towards the end of the Renaissance), introducing a new understanding of

the natural world."[106] In the 15th century, Portugal and Spain, two of the greatest naval powers of the

time, took the lead in exploring the world.[123][124] Christopher Columbus reached the New World in

1492 and Vasco da Gama opened the ocean route to the East in 1498, and soon after the Spanish and

Portuguese began establishing colonial empires in the Americas and Asia.[125] France, the Netherlands

and England soon followed in building large colonial empires with vast holdings in Africa, the Americas,

and Asia.

18th and 19th centuries

Main article: Modern history

See also: Industrial Revolution, French Revolution and Age of Enlightenment

Napoleon's retreat from Russia in 1812. Napoleon's Grande Armée had lost about half a million men.

The Age of Enlightenment was a powerful intellectual movement during the 18th century promoting

scientific and reason-based thoughts.[126][127][128] Discontent with the aristocracy and clergy's

monopoly on political power in France resulted in the French Revolution and the establishment of the

First Republic as a result of which the monarchy and many of the nobility perished during the initial

reign of terror.[129] Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power in the aftermath of the French Revolution and

established the First French Empire that, during the Napoleonic Wars, grew to encompass large parts of

Europe before collapsing in 1815 with the Battle of Waterloo.[130][131] Napoleonic rule resulted in the

further dissemination of the ideals of the French Revolution, including that of the nation-state, as well as

the widespread adoption of the French models of administration, law, and education.[132][133][134]

The Congress of Vienna, convened after Napoleon's downfall, established a new balance of power in

Europe centred on the five "Great Powers": the UK, France, Prussia, Austria, and Russia.[135] This

balance would remain in place until the Revolutions of 1848, during which liberal uprisings affected all of

Europe except for Russia and the UK. These revolutions were eventually put down by conservative

elements and few reforms resulted.[136] The year 1859 saw the unification of Romania, as a nation-

state, from smaller principalities. In 1867, the Austro-Hungarian empire was formed; and 1871 saw the

unifications of both Italy and Germany as nation-states from smaller principalities.[137]

Ottoman Europe in 1856

In parallel, the Eastern Question grew more complex ever since the Ottoman defeat in the Russo-Turkish

War (1768–1774). As the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire seemed imminent, the Great Powers

struggled to safeguard their strategic and commercial interests in the Ottoman domains. The Russian

Empire stood to benefit from the decline, whereas the Habsburg Empire and Britain perceived the

preservation of the Ottoman Empire to be in their best interests. Meanwhile, the Serbian revolution and

Greek War of Independence marked the birth of nationalism in the Balkans.[138] Formal recognition of

the de facto independent principalities of Montenegro, Serbia and Romania ensued at the Congress of

Berlin in 1878.

Marshall's Temple Works, the Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain

The Industrial Revolution started in Great Britain in the last part of the 18th century and spread

throughout Europe. The invention and implementation of new technologies resulted in rapid urban

growth, mass employment, and the rise of a new working class.[139] Reforms in social and economic

spheres followed, including the first laws on child labour, the legalisation of trade unions,[140] and the

abolition of slavery.[141] In Britain, the Public Health Act of 1875 was passed, which significantly

improved living conditions in many British cities.[142] Europe's population increased from about 100

million in 1700 to 400 million by 1900.[143] The last major famine recorded in Western Europe, the Irish

Potato Famine, caused death and mass emigration of millions of Irish people.[144] In the 19th century,

70 million people left Europe in migrations to various European colonies abroad and to the United

States.[145]

20th century to the present

Main articles: Modern era and History of Europe

See also: World War I, Great Depression, Interwar period, World War II, Cold War and History of the

European Union

Leaders of the Central Powers (left to right):

Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany;

Kaiser and King Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary;

Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire;

Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria.

Serbian war efforts cost the country one quarter of its population[146][147][148][149][150]

Two World Wars and an economic depression dominated the first half of the 20th century. World War I

was fought between 1914 and 1918. It started when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was

assassinated by the Yugoslav nationalist[151] Gavrilo Princip.[152] Most European nations were drawn

into the war, which was fought between the Entente Powers (France, Belgium, Serbia, Portugal, Russia,

the United Kingdom, and later Italy, Greece, Romania, and the United States) and the Central Powers

(Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). The War left more than 16 million

civilians and military dead.[153] Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to

1918.[154]

Ruins of Guernica (1937). The Spanish Civil War claimed the lives of over 500,000 people.

Russia was plunged into the Russian Revolution, which threw down the Tsarist monarchy and replaced it

with the communist Soviet Union.[155] Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire collapsed and broke

up into separate nations, and many other nations had their borders redrawn. The Treaty of Versailles,

which officially ended World War I in 1919, was harsh towards Germany, upon whom it placed full

responsibility for the war and imposed heavy sanctions.[156]

Excess deaths in Russia over the course of World War I and the Russian Civil War (including the postwar

famine) amounted to a combined total of 18 million.[157] In 1932–1933, under Stalin's leadership,

confiscations of grain by the Soviet authorities contributed to the second Soviet famine which caused

millions of deaths;[158] surviving kulaks were persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour.

Stalin was also responsible for the Great Purge of 1937–38 in which the NKVD executed 681,692

people;[159] millions of people were deported and exiled to remote areas of the Soviet Union.[160]

Economic instability, caused in part by debts incurred in the First World War and 'loans' to Germany

played havoc in Europe in the late 1920s and 1930s. This and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought

about the worldwide Great Depression. Helped by the economic crisis, social instability and the threat of

communism, fascist movements developed throughout Europe placing Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany,

Francisco Franco of Spain and Benito Mussolini of Italy in power.[161][162]

In 1933, Hitler became the leader of Germany and began to work towards his goal of building Greater

Germany. Germany re-expanded and took back the Saarland and Rhineland in 1935 and 1936. In 1938,

Austria became a part of Germany following the Anschluss. Later that year, following the Munich

Agreement signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy, Germany annexed the

Sudetenland, which was a part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by ethnic Germans, and in early 1939, the

remainder of Czechoslovakia was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, controlled by

Germany, and the Slovak Republic. At the time, Britain and France preferred a policy of appeasement.

Burned-out buildings in Hamburg, 1944 or 45

With tensions mounting between Germany and Poland over the future of Danzig, the Germans turned

to the Soviets, and signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which allowed the Soviets to invade the Baltic

states and parts of Poland and Romania. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, prompting

France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany on 3 September, opening the European

Theatre of World War II.[163][164] The Soviet invasion of Poland started on 17 September and Poland

fell soon thereafter. On 24 September, the Soviet Union attacked the Baltic countries and later, Finland.

The British hoped to land at Narvik and send troops to aid Finland, but their primary objective in the

landing was to encircle Germany and cut the Germans off from Scandinavian resources. Around the

same time, Germany moved troops into Denmark. The Phoney War continued.

In May 1940, Germany attacked France through the Low Countries. France capitulated in June 1940. By

August Germany began a bombing offensive on Britain, but failed to convince the Britons to give

up.[165] In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the Operation Barbarossa.[166] On 7 December

1941 Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the conflict as allies of the British

Empire and other allied forces.[167][168]

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference in 1945; seated (from the left): Winston Churchill, Franklin D.

Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin

After the staggering Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, the German offensive in the Soviet Union turned into a

continual fallback. The Battle of Kursk, which involved the largest tank battle in history, was the last

major German offensive on the Eastern Front. In 1944, British and American forces invaded France in

the D-Day landings, opening a new front against Germany. Berlin finally fell in 1945, ending World War II

in Europe. The war was the largest and most destructive in human history, with 60 million dead across

the world.[169] More than 40 million people in Europe had died as a result of World War II,[170]

including between 11 and 17 million people who perished during the Holocaust.[171] The Soviet Union

lost around 27 million people (mostly civilians) during the war, about half of all World War II

casualties.[172] By the end of World War II, Europe had more than 40 million refugees.[173] Several

post-war expulsions in Central and Eastern Europe displaced a total of about 20 million people.[174]

The Schuman Declaration led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community. It began the

integration process of the European Union. (9 May 1950, at the French Foreign Ministry)

World War I and especially World War II diminished the eminence of Western Europe in world affairs.

After World War II the map of Europe was redrawn at the Yalta Conference and divided into two blocs,

the Western countries and the communist Eastern bloc, separated by what was later called by Winston

Churchill an "Iron Curtain". The United States and Western Europe established the NATO alliance and

later the Soviet Union and Central Europe established the Warsaw Pact.[175]

The two new superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, became locked in a fifty-year-long

Cold War, centred on nuclear proliferation. At the same time decolonisation, which had already started

after World War I, gradually resulted in the independence of most of the European colonies in Asia and

Africa.[21] In the 1980s the reforms of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Solidarity movement in Poland

accelerated the collapse of the Eastern bloc and the end of the Cold War. Germany was reunited, after

the symbolic fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the maps of Central and Eastern Europe were redrawn

once more.[161]

European integration also grew after World War II. The Treaty of Rome in 1957 established the

European Economic Community between six Western European states with the goal of a unified

economic policy and common market.[176] In 1967 the EEC, European Coal and Steel Community and

Euratom formed the European Community, which in 1993 became the European Union. The EU

established a parliament, court and central bank and introduced the euro as a unified currency.[177] In

2004 and 2007, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, expanding the EU to its

current size of 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political

centre of power.[178]

European development

Territorial development of the Roman Empire 264 BC-192 AD

Europe in 814 AD

Europe in 1000 AD

Europe in 1430

Europe in 1648

Europe and German Confederation in 1820

Europe in 1890

Europe in 1923

Geography

Main article: Geography of Europe

Relief map of Europe and surrounding regions

Europe is a peninsula that makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass.[34] It has a higher ratio

of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent.[179] Its maritime borders consist of the

Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian

Seas to the south.[180] Land relief in Europe shows great variation within relatively small areas. The

southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps,

Pyrenees, and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the

east. This extended lowland is known as the Great European Plain, and at its heart lies the North

German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the

western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous, fjord-cut

spine of Norway.

Land use map of Europe with arable farmland (yellow), forest (dark green), pasture (light green), and

tundra or bogs in the north (dark yellow)

This description is simplified. Sub-regions such as the Iberian Peninsula and the Italian Peninsula contain

their own complex features, as does mainland Central Europe itself, where the relief contains many

plateaus, river valleys and basins that complicate the general trend. Sub-regions like Iceland, Britain, and

Ireland are special cases. The former is a land unto itself in the northern ocean which is counted as part

of Europe, while the latter are upland areas that were once joined to the mainland until rising sea levels

cut them off.

Climate

Main article: Climate of Europe

Biomes of Europe and surrounding regions:

tundra alpine tundra taiga montane forest

temperate broadleaf forest mediterranean forest temperate steppe dry steppe

Europe lies mainly in the temperate climate zones, being subjected to prevailing westerlies.

The climate is milder in comparison to other areas of the same latitude around the globe due to the

influence of the Gulf Stream.[181] The Gulf Stream is nicknamed "Europe's central heating", because it

makes Europe's climate warmer and wetter than it would otherwise be. The Gulf Stream not only carries

warm water to Europe's coast but also warms up the prevailing westerly winds that blow across the

continent from the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, the average temperature throughout the year of Naples is 16 °C (60.8 °F), while it is only 12

°C (53.6 °F) in New York City which is almost on the same latitude. Berlin, Germany; Calgary, Canada;

and Irkutsk, in the Asian part of Russia, lie on around the same latitude; January temperatures in Berlin

average around 8 °C (15 °F) higher than those in Calgary, and they are almost 22 °C (40 °F) higher than

average temperatures in Irkutsk.[181] Similarly, northern parts of Scotland have a tempertate marine

climate. The yearly average temperature in city of Inverness is 9.05 degrees Celsius (48.3 degrees

Fahrenheit). However, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, is on roughly the same latitude and has an average

temperature of -6.5 degrees Celsius (20.3 degrees Fahrenheit), giving it a nearly subarctic climate.

Geology

Main article: Geology of Europe

The Geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes

found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary.[182]

Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain in Europe.

The Adriatic Sea contains over 1300 islands and islets.

Europa Point as seen from the Strait of Gibraltar.

Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous Southern Europe

and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Ireland in the west to the Ural Mountains

in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of the Pyrenees and

Alps/Carpathians. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains and the

mountainous parts of the British Isles. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern

plains are the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea complex and Barents Sea.

The northern plain contains the old geological continent of Baltica, and so may be regarded geologically

as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in the south and west

constitute fragments from various other geological continents. Most of the older geology of western

Europe existed as part of the ancient microcontinent Avalonia.

Geological history

Main article: Geological history of Europe

The geological history of Europe traces back to the formation of the Baltic Shield (Fennoscandia) and the

Sarmatian craton, both around 2.25 billion years ago, followed by the Volgo-Uralia shield, the three

together leading to the East European craton (≈ Baltica) which became a part of the supercontinent

Columbia. Around 1.1 billion years ago, Baltica and Arctica (as part of the Laurentia block) became

joined to Rodinia, later resplitting around 550 million years ago to reform as Baltica. Around 440 million

years ago Euramerica was formed from Baltica and Laurentia; a further joining with Gondwana then

leading to the formation of Pangea. Around 190 million years ago, Gondwana and Laurasia split apart

due to the widening of the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, and very soon afterwards, Laurasia itself split up

again, into Laurentia (North America) and the Eurasian continent. The land connection between the two

persisted for a considerable time, via Greenland, leading to interchange of animal species. From around

50 million years ago, rising and falling sea levels have determined the actual shape of Europe, and its

connections with continents such as Asia. Europe's present shape dates to the late Tertiary period about

five million years ago.[183]

Biodiversity

See also: Fauna of Europe

Biogeographic regions of Europe and bordering regions

Having lived side-by-side with agricultural peoples for millennia, Europe's animals and plants have been

profoundly affected by the presence and activities of man. With the exception of Fennoscandia and

northern Russia, few areas of untouched wilderness are currently found in Europe, except for various

national parks.

The main natural vegetation cover in Europe is mixed forest. The conditions for growth are very

favourable. In the north, the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift warm the continent. Southern Europe

could be described as having a warm, but mild climate. There are frequent summer droughts in this

region. Mountain ridges also affect the conditions. Some of these (Alps, Pyrenees) are oriented east-

west and allow the wind to carry large masses of water from the ocean in the interior. Others are

oriented south-north (Scandinavian Mountains, Dinarides, Carpathians, Apennines) and because the rain

falls primarily on the side of mountains that is oriented towards the sea, forests grow well on this side,

while on the other side, the conditions are much less favourable. Few corners of mainland Europe have

not been grazed by livestock at some point in time, and the cutting down of the pre-agricultural forest

habitat caused disruption to the original plant and animal ecosystems.

Probably 80 to 90 percent of Europe was once covered by forest.[184] It stretched from the

Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean. Though over half of Europe's original forests disappeared

through the centuries of deforestation, Europe still has over one quarter of its land area as forest, such

as the taiga of Scandinavia and Russia, mixed rainforests of the Caucasus and the Cork oak forests in the

western Mediterranean. During recent times, deforestation has been slowed and many trees have been

planted. However, in many cases monoculture plantations of conifers have replaced the original mixed

natural forest, because these grow quicker. The plantations now cover vast areas of land, but offer

poorer habitats for many European forest dwelling species which require a mixture of tree species and

diverse forest structure. The amount of natural forest in Western Europe is just 2–3% or less, in

European Russia 5–10%. The country with the smallest percentage of forested area is Iceland (1%), while

the most forested country is Finland (77%).[185]

Floristic regions of Europe and neighbouring areas, according to Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch

In temperate Europe, mixed forest with both broadleaf and coniferous trees dominate. The most

important species in central and western Europe are beech and oak. In the north, the taiga is a mixed

spruce–pine–birch forest; further north within Russia and extreme northern Scandinavia, the taiga gives

way to tundra as the Arctic is approached. In the Mediterranean, many olive trees have been planted,

which are very well adapted to its arid climate; Mediterranean Cypress is also widely planted in southern

Europe. The semi-arid Mediterranean region hosts much scrub forest. A narrow east-west tongue of

Eurasian grassland (the steppe) extends eastwards from Ukraine and southern Russia and ends in

Hungary and traverses into taiga to the north.

Glaciation during the most recent ice age and the presence of man affected the distribution of European

fauna. As for the animals, in many parts of Europe most large animals and top predator species have

been hunted to extinction. The woolly mammoth was extinct before the end of the Neolithic period.

Today wolves (carnivores) and bears (omnivores) are endangered. Once they were found in most parts

of Europe. However, deforestation and hunting caused these animals to withdraw further and further.

By the Middle Ages the bears' habitats were limited to more or less inaccessible mountains with

sufficient forest cover. Today, the brown bear lives primarily in the Balkan peninsula, Scandinavia, and

Russia; a small number also persist in other countries across Europe (Austria, Pyrenees etc.), but in these

areas brown bear populations are fragmented and marginalised because of the destruction of their

habitat. In addition, polar bears may be found on Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago far north of

Scandinavia. The wolf, the second largest predator in Europe after the brown bear, can be found

primarily in Central and Eastern Europe and in the Balkans, with a handful of packs in pockets of

Western Europe (Scandinavia, Spain, etc.).

Once roaming the great temperate forests of Eurasia, European bison now live in nature preserves in

Białowieża Forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus.[186][187]

European wild cat, foxes (especially the red fox), jackal and different species of martens, hedgehogs,

different species of reptiles (like snakes such as vipers and grass snakes) and amphibians, different birds

(owls, hawks and other birds of prey).

Important European herbivores are snails, larvae, fish, different birds, and mammals, like rodents, deer

and roe deer, boars, and living in the mountains, marmots, steinbocks, chamois among others. A

number of insects, such as the small tortoiseshell butterfly, add to the biodiversity.[188]

The extinction of the dwarf hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans

on the islands of the Mediterranean.[189]

Sea creatures are also an important part of European flora and fauna. The sea flora is mainly

phytoplankton. Important animals that live in European seas are zooplankton, molluscs, echinoderms,

different crustaceans, squids and octopuses, fish, dolphins, and whales.

Biodiversity is protected in Europe through the Council of Europe's Bern Convention, which has also

been signed by the European Community as well as non-European states.

Political geography

Main article: Politics of Europe

See also: List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Europe and Regions of Europe

Modern political map of Europe and the surrounding region

Regional grouping used by the United Nations Statistics Department, which groups Azerbaijan, Armenia,

Cyprus, Georgia, and Turkey in Western Asia, and Kazakhstan in Central Asia.[190] According to the UN

Statistics Division, the assignment of countries or areas to specific groupings is for statistical

convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or

territories by the United Nations.[191]

Regional grouping according to The World Factbook which classifies Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia,

Kazakhstan, and Turkey as being primarily or entirely in Asia, and Cyprus as in the Middle East

European Union and its candidate countries

Map showing Council of Europe member nations in blue and founder nations in yellow

Map showing European membership of the EU and NATO

Subdivision of Europe according to the cultural criteria[192][193]

The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the various common definitions of

Europe, geographic or political. The data displayed are per sources in cross-referenced articles.

Flag Arms Name Area

(km²) Population

Population density

(per km²) Capital Name(s) in official language(s)

Albania Coat of arms of Albania.svg Albania 28,748 2,831,741 98.5 Tirana Shqipëria

Andorra Arms of Andorra.svg Andorra 468 68,403 146.2 Andorra la Vella

Andorra

Armenia Arms of Armenia.svg Armenia [j] 29,800 3,229,900 101 Yerevan

Hayastan

Austria EU Member States' CoA Series- Austria.svg Austria 83,858 8,169,929 97.4 Vienna

Österreich

Azerbaijan Coats of arms of None.svg Azerbaijan [k] 86,600 9,165,000 105.8 Baku

Azǝrbaycan

Belarus Coats of arms of None.svg Belarus 207,560 9,458,000 45.6 Minsk Belarus

Belgium Royal Arms of Belgium.svg Belgium 30,528 11,007,000 360.6

Brussels België/Belgique/Belgien

Bosnia and Herzegovina Coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg Bosnia and Herzegovina

51,129 3,843,126 75.2 Sarajevo Bosna i Hercegovina

Bulgaria Insigne Bulgaricum.svg Bulgaria 110,910 7,621,337 68.7 Sofia

Bălgarija

Croatia EU Member States' CoA Series- Croatia.svg Croatia 56,542 4,437,460 77.7 Zagreb

Hrvatska

Cyprus Lesser coat of arms of Cyprus.svg Cyprus [d] 9,251 788,457 85 Nicosia

Kýpros/Kıbrıs

Czech Republic Small coat of arms of the Czech Republic.svg Czech Republic 78,866 10,256,760

130.1 Prague Česká republika

Denmark National Coat of arms of Denmark no crown.svg Denmark 43,094

5,564,219 129 Copenhagen Danmark

Estonia Insigne Estonicum.svg Estonia 45,226 1,340,194 29 Tallinn Eesti

Finland Coat of Arms of Finland Alternative style.svg Finland 336,593 5,157,537 15.3

Helsinki Suomi/Finland

France Arms of France (UN variant).svg France [g] 547,030 66,104,000 115.5

Paris France

Georgia (country) Arms of Georgia.svg Georgia [l] 69,700 4,661,473 64 Tbilisi

Sakartvelo

Germany Coat of arms of Germany.svg Germany 357,021 80,716,000 233.2

Berlin Deutschland

Greece Lesser coat of arms of Greece.svg Greece 131,957 11,123,034 80.7 Athens

Elláda

Hungary Arms of Hungary.svg Hungary 93,030 10,075,034 108.3 Budapest

Magyarország

Iceland Arms of Iceland.svg Iceland 103,000 307,261 2.7 Reykjavík Ísland

Republic of Ireland Coat of arms of Ireland.svg Ireland 70,280 4,234,925 60.3 Dublin

Éire/Ireland

Italy CoA Marina Mercantile.svg Italy 301,230 59,530,464 197.7 Rome Italia

Kazakhstan Coats of arms of None.svg Kazakhstan [i] 2,724,900 15,217,711 5.6

Astana Qazaqstan/Kazahstan

Latvia Lesser coat of arms of Latvia (escutcheon).svg Latvia 64,589 2,067,900 34.2 Riga

Latvija

Liechtenstein Lesser arms of Liechtenstein.svg Liechtenstein 160 32,842 205.3 Vaduz

Liechtenstein

Lithuania Coat of arms of Lithuania.svg Lithuania 65,200 2,988,400 45.8 Vilnius

Lietuva

Luxembourg Arms of Luxembourg.svg Luxembourg 2,586 448,569 173.5

Luxembourg Lëtzebuerg/Luxemburg/Luxembourg

Republic of Macedonia Coats of arms of None.svg Macedonia 25,713 2,054,800 81.1

Skopje Makedonija

Malta Arms of Malta.svg Malta 316 397,499 1,257.9 Valletta Malta

Moldova Arms of Moldova.svg Moldova [a] 33,843 4,434,547 131.0 Chișinău

Moldova

Monaco Coat of arms of Grimaldi.svg Monaco 1.95 31,987 16,403.6

Monaco Monaco

Montenegro Arms of Montenegro.svg Montenegro 13,812 616,258 44.6

Podgorica Crna Gora

Netherlands Arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands [h] 41,526

16,902,103 393.0 Amsterdam Nederland

Norway Blason Norvège.svg Norway 385,178 5,018,836 15.5 Oslo

Norge/Noreg

Poland Herb Polski.svg Poland 312,685 38,625,478 123.5 Warsaw Polska

Portugal Shield of the Kingdom of Portugal (1481-1910).png Portugal [e] 91,568

10,409,995 110.1 Lisbon Portugal

Romania Coat of arms of Romania.svg Romania 238,391 21,698,181 91.0

Bucharest România

Russia Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation.svg Russia [b] 17,075,400 143,975,923

8.3 Moscow Rossiya

San Marino Insigne Sancti Marini.svg San Marino 61 27,730 454.6 San Marino

San Marino

Serbia Arms of Serbia.svg Serbia [f] 88,361 7,120,666 91.9 Belgrade Srbija

Slovakia Coat of arms of Slovakia.svg Slovakia 48,845 5,422,366 111.0

Bratislava Slovensko

Slovenia Coat of arms of Slovenia.svg Slovenia 20,273 2,050,189 101

Ljubljana Slovenija

Spain File-Arms of Spain (corrections of heraldist requests).svg Spain 504,851

47,059,533 93.2 Madrid España

Sweden Armoiries Suède moderne.svg Sweden 449,964 9,090,113 19.7

Stockholm Sverige

Switzerland Coat of Arms of Switzerland (Pantone).svg Switzerland 41,290 7,507,000

176.8 Bern Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra

Turkey Coats of arms of None.svg Turkey [m] 783,562 77,695,904 101 Ankara

Türkiye

Ukraine Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg Ukraine 603,700 48,396,470

80.2 Kiev Ukrajina

United Kingdom Arms of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom 244,820

64,105,654 244.2 London United Kingdom

Vatican City Coat of arms of the Vatican City.svg Vatican City 0.44 900 2,045.5 Vatican

City Civitas Vaticana

Total 10,180,000[n] 742,000,000[n] 70

Within the above-mentioned states are several de facto independent countries with limited to no

international recognition. None of them are members of the UN:

Flag Arms Name Area

(km²) Population

(1 July 2002 est.) Population density

(per km²) Capital

Abkhazia Coat of arms of Abkhazia.svg Abkhazia [p] 8,432 216,000 29

Sukhumi

Kosovo Coat of arms of Kosovo.svg Kosovo [o] 10,887 1,804,838[194] 220 Pristina

Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Arms of Nagorno-Karabakh.svg Nagorno-Karabakh [q] 11,458

138,800 12 Stepanakert

Northern Cyprus Arms of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.svg Northern Cyprus [d]

3,355 265,100 78 Nicosia

South Ossetia N/A South Ossetia [p] 3,900 70,000 18 Tskhinvali

Transnistria N/A Transnistria [a] 4,163 537,000 133 Tiraspol

Several dependencies and similar territories with broad autonomy are also found in Europe. Note that

the list does not include the constituent countries of the United Kingdom, federal states of Germany and

Austria, and autonomous territories of Spain and the post-Soviet republics as well as the republic of

Serbia.

Name of territory, with flag Area

(km²) Population

(1 July 2002 est.) Population density

(per km²) Capital

Åland (Finland) 13,517 26,008 16.8 Mariehamn

Faroe Islands (Denmark) 1,399 46,011 32.9 Tórshavn

Gibraltar (UK) 5.9 27,714 4,697.3 Gibraltar

Guernsey [c] (UK) 78 64,587 828.0 St. Peter Port

Isle of Man [c] (UK) 572 73,873 129.1 Douglas

Jersey [c] (UK) 116 89,775 773.9 Saint Helier

Integration

A clickable Euler diagram showing the relationships between various multinational European

organisations and agreements.

v t e

European Union and Commonwealth of Independent States

Main article: European integration

See also: International organizations in Europe

European integration is the process of political, legal, economic (and in some cases social and cultural)

integration of states wholly or partially in Europe. In the present day, European integration has primarily

come about through the Council of Europe and European Union in Western and Central Europe and

Commonwealth of Independent States in Central and Eastern Europe and most of former Soviet

countries.

Economy

European and bordering nations by GDP (nominal) per capita in 2012

Main article: Economy of Europe

Rank Country GDP (PPP, 2015)

millions of USD

1 Germany 3,815,462

2 Russia 3,458,402

3 United Kingdom 2,641,432

4 France 2,633,896

5 Italy 2,157,123

6 Spain 1,619,093

7 Turkey 1,508,407

8 Poland 996,477

9 Netherlands 818,249

10 Belgium 492,267

Rank Country GDP (nominal, 2015)

millions of USD

1 Germany 3,413,483

2 United Kingdom 2,853,357

3 France 2,469,530

4 Italy 1,842,835

5 Spain 1,230,207

6 Russia 1,175,996

7 Turkey 806,510

8 Netherlands 749,365

9 Switzerland 688,434

10 Poland 491,239

As a continent, the economy of Europe is currently the largest on Earth and it is the richest region as

measured by assets under management with over $32.7 trillion compared to North America's $27.1

trillion in 2008.[195] In 2009 Europe remained the wealthiest region. Its $37.1 trillion in assets under

management represented one-third of the world's wealth. It was one of several regions where wealth

surpassed its precrisis year-end peak.[196] As with other continents, Europe has a large variation of

wealth among its countries. The richer states tend to be in the West; some of the Central and Eastern

European economies are still emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The European Union, a political entity composed of 28 European states, comprises the largest single

economic area in the world. 18 EU countries share the euro as a common currency. Five European

countries rank in the top ten of the world's largest national economies in GDP (PPP). This includes (ranks

according to the CIA): Germany (5), the UK (6), Russia (7), France (8), and Italy (10).[197]

There is huge disparity between many European countries in terms of their income. The richest in terms

of GDP per capita is Monaco with its US$172,676 per capita (2009) and the poorest is Moldova with its

GDP per capita of US$1,631 (2010).[198] Monaco is the richest country in terms of GDP per capita in the

world according to the World Bank report.

Pre–1945: Industrial growth

Capitalism has been dominant in the Western world since the end of feudalism.[199] From Britain, it

gradually spread throughout Europe.[200] The Industrial Revolution started in Europe, specifically the

United Kingdom in the late 18th century,[201] and the 19th century saw Western Europe industrialise.

Economies were disrupted by World War I but by the beginning of World War II they had recovered and

were having to compete with the growing economic strength of the United States. World War II, again,

damaged much of Europe's industries.

1945–1990: The Cold War

After World War II the economy of the UK was in a state of ruin,[202] and continued to suffer relative

economic decline in the following decades.[203] Italy was also in a poor economic condition but

regained a high level of growth by the 1950s. West Germany recovered quickly and had doubled

production from pre-war levels by the 1950s.[204] France also staged a remarkable comeback enjoying

rapid growth and modernisation; later on Spain, under the leadership of Franco, also recovered, and the

nation recorded huge unprecedented economic growth beginning in the 1960s in what is called the

Spanish miracle.[205] The majority of Central and Eastern European states came under the control of

the Soviet Union and thus were members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance

(COMECON).[206]

Fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

The states which retained a free-market system were given a large amount of aid by the United States

under the Marshall Plan. [207] The western states moved to link their economies together, providing the

basis for the EU and increasing cross border trade. This helped them to enjoy rapidly improving

economies, while those states in COMECON were struggling in a large part due to the cost of the Cold

War. Until 1990, the European Community was expanded from 6 founding members to 12. The

emphasis placed on resurrecting the West German economy led to it overtaking the UK as Europe's

largest economy.

1991–2007: Integration and reunification

With the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1991, the post-socialist states began free

market reforms: Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia adopted them reasonably quickly, while Ukraine and

Russia are still in the process of doing so.

After East and West Germany were reunited in 1990, the economy of West Germany struggled as it had

to support and largely rebuild the infrastructure of East Germany.

Unemployment in the European Union in 2010, according to Eurostat.

By the millennium change, the EU dominated the economy of Europe comprising the five largest

European economies of the time namely Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Spain. In

1999, 12 of the 15 members of the EU joined the Eurozone replacing their former national currencies by

the common euro. The three who chose to remain outside the Eurozone were: the United Kingdom,

Denmark, and Sweden. The European Union is now the largest economy in the world.[208]

2008–2010: Recession

Main articles: Late 2000s recession in Europe and European sovereign-debt crisis

Figures released by Eurostat in January 2009 confirmed that the Eurozone had gone into recession in the

third quarter of 2008.[209] It impacted much of the region.[210] In early 2010, fears of a sovereign debt

crisis[211] developed concerning some countries in Europe, especially Greece, Ireland, Spain, and

Portugal.[212] As a result, measures were taken, especially for Greece, by the leading countries of the

Eurozone.[213]

The EU-27 unemployment rate was 10.3% in April 2012.[214] Recent university graduates have been

unable to find work.[215] In April 2012, the unemployment rate in the EU27 for those aged 15–24 was

22.4%.[214]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Europe

See also: List of European countries by population, Ethnic groups in Europe, Immigration to Europe,

Emigration from Europe and Ageing of Europe

Population growth and decline in and around Europe in 2010[216]

Since the Renaissance, Europe has had a major influence in culture, economics and social movements in

the world. The most significant inventions had their origins in the Western world, primarily Europe and

the United States.[217][218] Approximately 70 million Europeans died through war, violence and famine

between 1914 and 1945.[219] Some current and past issues in European demographics have included

religious emigration, race relations, economic immigration, a declining birth rate and an ageing

population.

In some countries, such as Ireland and Poland, access to abortion is limited. It remains illegal on the

island of Malta. Furthermore, three European countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland) and

the Autonomous Community of Andalusia (Spain)[220][221] have allowed a limited form of voluntary

euthanasia for some terminally ill people.

The Moravian Slovak costumes during festival

In 2005, the population of Europe was estimated to be 731 million according to the United Nations,[222]

which is slightly more than one-ninth of the world's population. A century ago, Europe had nearly a

quarter of the world's population.[223] The population of Europe has grown in the past century, but in

other areas of the world (in particular Africa and Asia) the population has grown far more quickly.[222]

Among the continents, Europe has a relatively high population density, second only to Asia. The most

densely populated country in Europe (and in the world) is Monaco. Pan and Pfeil (2004) count 87

distinct "peoples of Europe", of which 33 form the majority population in at least one sovereign state,

while the remaining 54 constitute ethnic minorities.[224] According to UN population projection,

Europe's population may fall to about 7% of world population by 2050, or 653 million people (medium

variant, 556 to 777 million in low and high variants, respectively).[222] Within this context, significant

disparities exist between regions in relation to fertility rates. The average number of children per female

of child bearing age is 1.52.[225] According to some sources,[226] this rate is higher among Muslims in

Europe. The UN predicts a steady population decline in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of

emigration and low birth rates.[227]

Galician bagpipers or gaiteiros in Spain

Europe is home to the highest number of migrants of all global regions at 70.6 million people, the IOM's

report said.[228] In 2005, the EU had an overall net gain from immigration of 1.8 million people. This

accounted for almost 85% of Europe's total population growth.[229] The European Union plans to open

the job centres for legal migrant workers from Africa.[230][231] In 2008, 696,000 persons were given

citizenship of an EU27 member state, a decrease from 707,000 the previous year.[232]

Emigration from Europe began with Spanish and Portuguese settlers in the 16th century,[233][234] and

French and English settlers in the 17th century.[235] But numbers remained relatively small until waves

of mass emigration in the 19th century, when millions of poor families left Europe.[236]

Today, large populations of European descent are found on every continent. European ancestry

predominates in North America, and to a lesser degree in South America (particularly in Uruguay,

Argentina, Chile and Brazil, while most of the other Latin American countries also have a considerable

population of European origins). Australia and New Zealand have large European derived populations.

Africa has no countries with European-derived majorities (or with the exception of Cape Verde and

probably São Tomé and Príncipe, depending on context), but there are significant minorities, such as the

White South Africans. In Asia, European-derived populations predominate in Northern Asia (specifically

Russians), some parts of Northern Kazakhstan and Israel.[237] Additionally, transcontinental or

geographically Asian countries such as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Turkey have

populations historically closely related to Europeans, with considerable genetic and cultural affinity.

Language

Main article: Languages of Europe

Overview map of the distribution of major European languages

European languages mostly fall within three Indo-European language groups: the Romance languages,

derived from the Latin of the Roman Empire; the Germanic languages, whose ancestor language came

from southern Scandinavia; and the Slavic languages.[183]

Slavic languages are most spoken by the number of native speakers in Europe, they are spoken in

Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Romance languages are spoken primarily in south-western

Europe as well as in Romania and Moldova, in Central or Eastern Europe. Germanic languages are

spoken in Northern Europe, the British Isles and some parts of Central Europe.[183]

Many other languages outside the three main groups exist in Europe. Other Indo-European languages

include the Baltic group (that is, Latvian and Lithuanian), the Celtic group (that is, Irish, Scottish Gaelic,

Manx, Welsh, Cornish, and Breton[183]), Greek, Armenian, and Albanian. In addition, a distinct group of

Uralic languages (Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian) is spoken mainly in Estonia, Finland, and Hungary,

while Kartvelian languages (Georgian, Mingrelian, and Svan), are spoken primarily in Georgia, and two

other language families reside in the North Caucasus (termed Northeast Caucasian, most notably

including Chechen, Avar and Lezgin and Northwest Caucasian, notably including Adyghe). Maltese is the

only Semitic language that is official within the EU, while Basque is the only European language isolate.

Turkic languages include Azerbaijani and Turkish, in addition to the languages of minority nations in

Russia.

Multilingualism and the protection of regional and minority languages are recognised political goals in

Europe today. The Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

and the Council of Europe's European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages set up a legal

framework for language rights in Europe.

Religion

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the largest church in the Europe.

Main article: Religion in Europe

Historically, religion in Europe has been a major influence on European art, culture, philosophy and law.

The largest religion in Europe is Christianity, with 76.2% of Europeans considering themselves

Christians,[238] including Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and various Protestant denominations (especially

historically state-supported European ones such as Lutheranism, Anglicanism and the Reformed faith).

The second most popular religion is Islam (6%)[239] concentrated mainly in the Balkans and eastern

Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, Kazakhstan, North Cyprus, Turkey, Azerbaijan, North

Caucasus, and the Volga-Ural region). Other religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism are

minority religions (though Tibetan Buddhism is the majority religion of Russia's Republic of Kalmykia).

The 20th century saw the revival of Neopaganism through movements such as Wicca and Druidry.

Europe has become a relatively secular continent, with an increasing number and proportion of

irreligious, atheist and agnostic people which make up about 18.2% of Europeans population,[240]

actually the largest secular in the Western world. There are a particularly high number of self-described

non-religious people in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Sweden, former East Germany, and France.[241]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Europe

See also: European art

Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The culture of Europe can be described as a series of overlapping cultures; cultural mixes exist across the

continent. Scholar Andreas Kaplan describes Europe as "embracing maximum cultural diversity at

minimal geographical distances".[242] There are cultural innovations and movements, sometimes at

odds with each other. Thus, the question of "common culture" or "common values" is complex.

According to historian Hilaire Belloc, for several centuries the peoples of Europe based their self-

identification on the remaining traces of the Roman culture and on the concept of Christendom,

because many European-wide military alliances were of religious nature: the Crusades (1095–1291), the

Reconquista (711–1492), the Battle of Lepanto (1571).[243]

See also

Main articles: List of Europe-related articles and Outline of Europe

Continental Europe

Telecommunications in Europe

Europe as a potential superpower

List of European television stations

Politics

Eurodistrict

Euroregion

Flags of Europe

List of sovereign states by date of formation

Names of European cities in different languages

OSCE countries statistics

Demographics

Area and population of European countries

Demographics of Europe

European Union statistics

Largest cities of the EU

Largest urban areas of the European Union

List of cities in Europe

List of metropolitan areas in Europe

List of villages in Europe

Economics

Economy of the European Union

Financial and social rankings of European countries

Healthcare in Europe

List of European countries by GDP (nominal)

Europe green light.pngEurope portal Terrestrial globe.svgGeography portal

Notes

^ a b Transnistria, internationally recognised as being a legal part of the Republic of Moldova,

although de facto control is exercised by its internationally unrecognised government which declared

independence from Moldova in 1990.

^ Russia is considered a transcontinental country in both Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. People in

Russia tend to call the region Northern Eurasia. However only the population figure includes the entire

state.

^ a b c Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey are Crown Dependencies of the United Kingdom. Other

Channel Islands legislated by the Bailiwick of Guernsey include Alderney and Sark.

^ a b Cyprus is physiographically entirely in Southwest Asia but has strong historical and sociopolitical

connections with Europe. The population and area figures refer to the entire state, including the de

facto independent part Northern Cyprus which is not recognised as a sovereign nation by the vast

majority of sovereign nations, nor the UN.

^ Figures for Portugal include the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, both in Northern Atlantic.

^ Area figure for Serbia includes Kosovo, a province that unilaterally declared its independence from

Serbia on 17 February 2008, and whose sovereign status is unclear. Population and density figures are

from the first results of 2011 census and are given without the disputed territory of Kosovo.

^ Figures for France include only metropolitan France: some politically integral parts of France are

geographically located outside Europe.

^ Netherlands population for November 2014. Population and area details include European portion

only: Netherlands and three entities outside Europe (Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten, in the

Caribbean) constitute the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Amsterdam is the official capital, while The

Hague is the administrative seat.

^ Kazakhstan is physiographically considered a transcontinental country, mostly in Central Asia (UN

region), partly in Eastern Europe, with European territory west of the Ural Mountains and Ural River.

However, only the population figure refers to the entire country.

^ Armenia is physiographically entirely in Western Asia, but it has strong historical and sociopolitical

connections with Europe. The population and area figures include the entire state respectively.

^ Azerbaijan is physiographically considered a transcontinental country mostly in Western Asia with a

small part in Eastern Europe.[244] However the population and area figures are for the entire state. This

includes the exclave of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and the region Nagorno-Karabakh that has

declared, and de facto achieved, independence. Nevertheless, it is not recognised de jure by sovereign

states.

^ Georgia is physiographically almost entirely in Western Asia, with a very small part in Eastern

Europe, but it has strong historical and sociopolitical connections with Europe.[245][246] The population

and area figures include Georgian estimates for Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two regions that have

declared and de facto achieved independence. International recognition, however, is limited.

^ Turkey is physiographically considered a transcontinental country, mostly in Western Asia, partly in

Eastern Europe. However only the population figure includes the entire state.

^ a b c d The total figures for area and population include only European portions of transcontinental

countries. The precision of these figures is compromised by the ambiguous geographical extent of

Europe and the lack of references for European portions of transcontinental countries.

^ Kosovo unilaterally declared its independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. Its sovereign status

is unclear. Its population is July 2009 CIA estimate.

^ a b Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both generally considered to be entirely within Southwest

Asia,[246] unilaterally declared their independence from Georgia on 25 August 1990 and 28 November

1991 respectively. Their status as sovereign nations is not recognised by a vast majority of sovereign

nations, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates respectively.

^ Nagorno-Karabakh, generally considered to be entirely within Southwest Asia, unilaterally declared

its independence from Azerbaijan on 6 January 1992. Its status as a sovereign nation is not recognised

by any sovereign nation, nor the UN. Population figures stated as of 2003 census and 2000 estimates

respectively.

Boundaries between continents

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Color-coded map of continents:

Americas

North America

South America

Afro-Eurasia

Africa

Eurasia

Asia

Europe

Antarctica

Australasia/Oceania

Map of island countries: these states are not located on any continent (landmass), but they are usually

grouped geographically with a neighbouring continent

A map of transcontinental countries, countries that control territory in more than one continent.

Contiguous transcontinental countries.

Non-contiguous transcontinental countries.

Countries that could be considered transcontinental depending on definitions and claim legality.

The boundaries between the continents of Earth are generally a matter of geographical convention.

Several slightly different conventions are in use. The number of continents is most commonly

considered seven but may range as low as four when the Americas and Afro-Eurasia are each considered

a single continent. According to the definition of a continent in the strict sense, an island cannot be part

of any continent, but by convention and in practice most major islands are associated with a continent.

There are three overland boundaries subject to definition:

between Asia and Africa (dividing Afro-Eurasia into Africa and Eurasia): at the Isthmus of Suez

between Asia and Europe (dividing Eurasia): along the Bosphorus, the Dardanelles, the Caucasus and

the Urals (historically also north of the Caucasus, along the Kuma–Manych Depression or along the Don

River)

between North America and South America (dividing the Americas): the Isthmus of Panama

While the isthmus between Asia and Africa and that between the two Americas are today navigable, via

the Suez and Panama canals, man-made diversions and canals are generally not accepted on their own

accord as continent-defining boundaries; the Suez Canal happens to traverse the isthmus between the

Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea, dividing Asia and Africa. The remaining boundaries concern the

association of islands and archipelagos with specific continents, notably:

the delineation of Southeast Asia from Australasia

the delineation between Africa, Europe and Asia in the Mediterranean Sea

the delineation between Asia and Europe in the Arctic Ocean

the delineation between Europe and North America in the Atlantic Ocean

the delineation between North and South America in the Caribbean Sea

the delineation of Asia from North America in the North Pacific Ocean

Contents

1 Europe and Africa

2 Europe and Asia

2.1 History

2.2 Modern definition

2.3 Islands

3 Europe and North America

3.1 Islands

4 Africa and Asia

5 North and South America

5.1 Mainland

5.2 Islands

6 Asia and North America

7 The Americas and Oceania

8 Asia and Oceania

9 Antarctica

10 See also

11 References

Europe and Africa

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding

citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)

The Mediterranean Sea

The Atlantic Ocean around the boundary

The European and African mainlands are non-contiguous, and the delineation between these continents

is thus merely a question of which islands are to be associated with which continent.

The Portuguese Atlantic island possession of the Azores is 1,368 km (850 mi) from Europe, 1,507 km

(936 mi) from Africa, and is usually grouped with Europe if grouped with any continent. By contrast, the

Canary and Madeira islands off the Atlantic coast of Morocco are much closer to and usually grouped

with Africa (Madeira is 860 km (530 mi) from Europe and 660 km (410 mi) from Africa).[1]

The island nation of Malta is approximately 81 km (50 mi) from the coast of Sicily in Europe - much

closer than the 288 km (179 mi) distance to the closest African coast. The nearby Italian island of

Lampedusa is 207 km (129 mi) from Sicily while just 127 km (79 mi) from the African coast; similarly,

Pantelleria is 100 km (62 mi) from Sicily and just 71 km (44 mi) from the African coast. All are generally

included within Europe if grouped with any continent at all.

Europe and Asia

Conventions used for the boundary between Europe and Asia during the 18th and 19th centuries. The

red line shows the most common modern convention, in use since c. 1850 (see below).

Europe

Asia

historically placed in either continent

History

The threefold division of the Old World into Europe, Asia and Africa has been in use since the 6th

century BC, due to Greek geographers such as Anaximander and Hecataeus. The boundary between

Europe and Asia is somewhat unique among continental boundaries because of its largely mountain-

and-river-based characteristics north and east of the Black Sea. Europe can be considered more of a

subcontinent within Eurasia in de facto terms, and it has sometimes been referred to as such.[2]

Anaximander placed the boundary between Asia and Europe along the Phasis River (the modern Rioni)

in the Caucasus (from its mouth by Poti on the Black Sea coast, through the Surami Pass and along the

Kura River to the Caspian Sea), a convention still followed by Herodotus in the 5th century BC.[3] As

geographic knowledge of the Greeks increased during the Hellenistic period,[4] this archaic convention

was revised, and the boundary between Europe and Asia was now considered to be the Tanais (the

modern Don River). This is the convention used by Roman era authors such as Posidonius,[5] Strabo[6]

and Ptolemy.[7]

Throughout the Middle Ages and into the 18th century, the traditional division of the landmass of

Eurasia into two continents, Europe and Asia, followed Ptolemy, with the boundary following the

Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus, the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, the

Sea of Azov and the Don (ancient Tanais). But maps produced during the 16th to 18th centuries tended

to differ in how to continue the boundary beyond the Don bend at Kalach-na-Donu (where it is closest to

the Volga, now joined with it by the Volga–Don Canal), into territory not described in any detail by the

ancient geographers.

Philip Johan von Strahlenberg in 1725 was the first to depart from the classical Don boundary by

drawing the line along the Volga, following the Volga north until the Samara Bend, along Obshchy Syrt

(the drainage divide between Volga and Ural) and then north along Ural Mountains.[8][9] The

mapmakers continued to differ on the boundary between the lower Don and Samara well into the 19th

century. The 1745 atlas published by the Russian Academy of Sciences has the boundary follow the Don

beyond Kalach as far as Serafimovich before cutting north towards Arkhangelsk, while other 18th- to

19th-century mapmakers such as John Cary followed Strahlenberg's prescription. To the south, the

Kuma–Manych Depression was identified circa 1773 by a German naturalist Peter Simon Pallas as a

valley that, once upon a time, connected the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea,[9][10] and subsequently

was proposed as a natural boundary between continents.

By the mid-19th century, there were three main conventions, one following the Don, the Volga–Don

Canal and the Volga, the other following the Kuma–Manych Depression to the Caspian and then the Ural

River, and the third abandoning the Don altogether, following the Greater Caucasus watershed to the

Caspian. The question was still treated as a "controversy" in geographical literature of the 1860s, with

Douglas Freshfield advocating the Caucasus crest boundary as the "best possible", citing support from

various "modern geographers".[11]

In Russia and the Soviet Union, the boundary along the Kuma–Manych Depression was the most

commonly used as early as 1906.[12] In 1958, the Soviet Geographical Society formally recommended

that the boundary between the Europe and Asia be drawn in textbooks from Baydaratskaya Bay, on the

Kara Sea, along the eastern foot of Ural Mountains, then following the Ural River until the Mugodzhar

Hills, and then the Emba River; and Kuma–Manych Depression,[13] thus placing the Caucasus entirely in

Asia and the Urals entirely in Europe.[14] However, most geographers in the Soviet Union favoured the

boundary along the Caucasus crest[15] and this became the standard convention in the latter 20th

century, although the Kuma–Manych boundary remained in use in some 20th-century maps.

Map of the world according to Anaximander (6th century BC). Only the parts of Europe, Asia and

Africa directly adjacent to the Mediterranean and the Black Sea are known. The Phasis River of the

Caucasus is imagined as separating Europe from Asia, while the Nile separates Asia from Africa (Libya).

In this 1570 map of Asia (Asiae Nova Descriptio), the Tanais is used as continental boundary. Moscovia

is represented as "transcontinental", having an Asiatic and a European part (labelled Europae pars).

This 1719 map of "ancient Asia" (Asia Vetus) divides Sarmatia into Sarmatia Europea and Sarmatia

Asiatica. The continental boundary is drawn along the Tanais (Don), the Volga and the Northern Dvina.

Herman Moll (c. 1715) draws the boundary along the Don, the Volga, cutting across land from Samara

to the Tobol River, following the lower Irtysh and finally the Ob River, placing Novaya Zemlya in Europe.

A German map of 1730 by Johann Christoph Homann has a similar boundary to the one shown by

Moll, but following the full length of the Samara bend and then cutting across to the Irtysh directly,

placing the Tobol and Tobolsk in Asia.

The "Academy Atlas" of the Russian Empire, published by The Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in

1745, draws the boundary along the Don, but then west of the Volga to Arkhangelsk

1806 map of Asia by John Cary, boundary along the Don and then the Volga until Samara, and north of

Perm following the Urals, placing Novaya Zemlya in Asia.

1827 map by Anthony Finley, showing the boundary as running along the Don, the Volga, passing

between Perm and Ufa, and running north over land to the Sea of Kara, placing Novaya Zemlya in

Europe.

1861 map by A. J. Johnson, illustrating the modern convention, Caucasus crest, Ural River, Urals.

1914 map showing the boundary along the Manych River, placing Stavropol Krai in Asia

Miles Clark in his 1992 "circumnavigation of Europe" followed the White Sea – Baltic Canal until Lake

Onega and the Volga–Baltic Waterway to the Rybinsk Reservoir before joining the classical boundary

along the Volga and Don rivers.[16][17]

Modern definition

Transcontinental states, European territory

Transcontinental states, Asian territory

Road sign on the continental border between Europe and Asia near Magnitogorsk, Ural mountains,

Russia. It reads "Europe", above "Asia" crossed out (meaning "you are leaving Asia").

The modern border between Asia and Europe remains a historical and cultural construct, defined only

by convention. The modern border follows the Aegean Sea, the Dardanelles-Sea of Marmara-Bosphorus,

the Black Sea, along the watershed of the Greater Caucasus, the northwestern portion of the Caspian

Sea and along the Ural River and Ural Mountains to the Arctic Ocean, as mapped and listed in most

atlases including that of the National Geographic Society and as described in the World

Factbook.[18][19] According to this definition, Georgia and Azerbaijan both have most of their territory

in Asia, although each has small parts of their northern borderlands north of the Greater Caucasus

watershed and thus in Europe.[20]

Though most geographic sources assign the area south of the Caucasus Mountain crest to Southwest or

West Asia,[21] no definition is entirely satisfactory, with it often becoming a matter of self-identification.

Cultural influences in the area originate from both Asia and Europe. While geographers rarely define

continents primarily politically, Georgia and to a lesser extent Armenia and Azerbaijan are increasingly in

the 21st century politically oriented towards Europe, but Armenia has a great cultural diaspora to the

south, and Azerbaijan shares a cultural affinity with the Turkic countries of Central Asia.[22]

The Turkish city Istanbul lies in on both sides of the Bosporus, making it a transcontinental city. Russia

and Turkey are transcontinental countries with territory in both Europe and Asia by any definition. While

Russia is historically a European country with a history of imperial conquests in Asia, the situation for

Turkey is inverse, as that of an Asian country with imperial conquests in Europe. Kazakhstan is also a

transcontinental country by this definition, its West Kazakhstan and Atyrau provinces extending on

either side of the Ural River.[23]

This Ural River delineation is the only segment not to follow a major mountain range or wide water

body, both of which often truly separate populations. However, the Ural River is the most common

division used by authorities,[18][23][24] is the most prominent natural feature in the region, and is the

"most satisfactory of those (options) proposed"[25] which include the Emba River, a much smaller

stream cutting further into Central Asian Kazakhstan. The Ural River bridge in Orenburg is even labeled

with permanent monuments carved with the word "Europe" on one side, "Asia" on the other.[26]

The Kuma–Manych Depression (more precisely, the Manych River, the Kuma–Manych Canal and the

Kuma River) remains cited less commonly as one possible natural boundary in contemporary

sources.[27] This definition peaked in prominence in the 1800s, however, as it places traditionally

European areas of Russia such as Stavropol, Krasnodar, and even areas just south of Rostov-on-Don in

Asia.

There are other definitions for Europe and Asia limits, such as political definitions. The United Nations

Statistics Division lists transcontinental countries under the continent in which they have the majority of

their population:[28]

listed as part of Eastern Europe: Russian Federation

listed as part of Central Asia: Kazakhstan

listed as part of Western Asia: Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey

The Council of Europe includes the Eurasian countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia, Russia

and Turkey. It notes that "two Council of Europe member States, Turkey and Russia, belong

geographically to both Europe and Asia and are therefore Eurasian. Strictly speaking, the three South

Caucasus States, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are located in Asia, yet their membership (in) political

Europe is no longer in doubt." [29] Although not a member, Eurasian Kazakhstan is granted the right to

request membership. [30]

Islands

Cyprus is an island of the Mediterranean located close to Asia Minor, so that it is usually associated with

Asia and/or the Middle East, as in the World Factbook, but it was nevertheless admitted to the Council

of Europe in 1961 and joined the EU in 2004, except for the northern part which is politically and

culturally connected to Turkey, Asia.

The Greek North Aegean Islands and the Dodecanese lie on the coast of the Asian part of Turkey (on the

Asian continental shelf).

Europe and North America

Europe and North America are separated by the North Atlantic. In terms of associating islands with

either continent, the boundary is usually drawn between Greenland and Iceland. The Norwegian islands

of Jan Mayen and Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean are usually associated with Europe. Iceland and the

Azores are protrusions of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and are associated with and peopled from Europe,

even though they have areas on the North American Plate. (Definitions of "continents" are a physical

and cultural construct dating back centuries, long before the advent or even knowledge of plate

tectonics; i.e., defining a "continent" falls into the realm of physical and cultural geography, while

continental plate definitions fall under plate tectonics in the realm of geology.)

Islands

The geographical notion of a continent stands in opposition to islands and archipelagos.[31]

Nevertheless, there are some islands that are considered part of Europe in a political sense. This most

notably includes the British Isles (part of the European continental shelf and during the Ice Age of the

continent itself), besides the islands of the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean which are

part of the territory of a country situated on the European mainland, and usually also the island states of

Iceland and Malta.

Russia's Vaygach Island and Novaya Zemlya extend northward from the northern end of the Ural

Mountains and are a continuation of that chain into the Arctic Ocean. While Novaya Zemlya was

variously grouped with Europe or with Asia in 19th-century maps, it is now usually grouped with Europe,

the continental boundary considered to join the Arctic Ocean along the southern shore of the Kara Sea.

The Russian Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land farther north is also associated with Europe.

Europe ends in the west at the Atlantic Ocean, although Iceland and the Azores archipelago (in the

Atlantic, between Europe and North America) are usually considered European, as is the Norwegian

Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Greenland is geographically part of North America, but

politically associated with Europe as it is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, although it has extensive

home rule and EU law no longer applies there.

Africa and Asia

African part of Egypt

Asian part of Egypt

Rest of Asia

Rest of Africa

Historically, in Greco-Roman geography, Africa (Libya) was taken to begin in Marmarica, at the

Catabathmus Magnus, placing Egypt in Asia entirely. The idea of Egypt being an "African" country seems

to develop in around the mid 19th century; the term Africa was classically reserved for what is now

known as the Maghreb, to the explicit exclusion of Egypt, but with the exploration of Africa the shape of

the African landmass (and Egypt's "natural" inclusion in that landmass) became apparent. In 1806,

William George Browne still titled his travelogue Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria. Similarly, James

Bruce in 1835 published Travels through part of Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Arabia. On the other hand, as

early as 1670 John Ogilby under the title Africa published "an accurate Description of the Regions of

Egypt, Barbary, Libya, and Billedulgerid, the Land of Negroes, Guinea, Æthiopia, and the Abyssines, with

all the adjacent Islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Southern, or Oriental Seas, belonging

thereunto".

The usual line taken to divide Africa from Asia today is at the Isthmus of Suez, the narrowest gap

between the Mediterranean and Gulf of Suez, the route today followed by the Suez Canal. This makes

the Sinai Peninsula geographically Asian, and Egypt a transcontinental country.

Less than 2% of Egyptian population live in the Sinai, and hence Egypt even though technically

transcontinental is usually considered an African country. But when discussing the geopolitical region of

the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt is usually grouped with the Asian countries as part of the Middle

East, while Egypt's western neighbor Libya is grouped with the remaining North African countries as the

Maghreb.

The Seychelles, Mauritius, and Comoros are island nations in the Indian Ocean associated with Africa.

The island of Socotra may be considered African as it lies on this continent's shelf, but is part of Yemen,

an Asian country.

North and South America

Panama

Further information: Americas and Central America

Mainland

The border between North America and South America is at some point on the Isthmus of Panama. The

most common demarcation in atlases and other sources follows the Darién Mountains watershed divide

along the Colombia-Panama border where the isthmus meets the South American continent. Virtually all

atlases list Panama as a state falling entirely within North America and/or Central America.[32]

Islands

Often most of the Caribbean islands are considered part of North America, but Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao

and Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America. On the other hand, the

Venezuelan Isla Aves and the Colombian San Andrés and Providencia lie on the North American shelf.

Asia and North America

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding

citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2011)

The Bering Strait and Bering Sea separate the landmasses of Asia and North America, as well as forming

the international boundary between Russia and the United States. This national and continental

boundary separates the Diomede Islands in the Bering Strait, with Big Diomede in Russia and Little

Diomede in the US. The Aleutian Islands are an island chain extending westward from the Alaska

Peninsula toward Russia's Komandorski Islands and Kamchatka Peninsula. Most of them are always

associated with North America, except for the westernmost Near Islands group, which is on Asia's

continental shelf beyond the North Aleutians Basin and on rare occasions could be associated with Asia,

which could then allow the U.S. state of Alaska to be considered a transcontinental state.[citation

needed]

St. Lawrence Island in the northern Bering Sea belongs to Alaska and may be associated with either

continent but are almost always considered part of North America, as with the Rat Islands in the

Aleutian chain.

The Americas and Oceania

The Galápagos Islands and Malpelo Island in the eastern Pacific Ocean are possessions of Ecuador and

Colombia, respectively, and associated with South America. The uninhabited French possession of

Clipperton Island 600 miles (970 km) off the Mexican coast is associated with North America.

Easter Island, a territory of Chile, is considered to be in Oceania, though politically it is associated with

South America.

The United States controls numerous territories in Oceania, including the state of Hawaii.

Asia and Oceania

Wallace, Lydekker and Weber Lines, the principals on Melanesia

Indonesia is today more commonly referred to as one of the Southeast Asian countries, and thus simply

Asian. However, the Malay Archipelago is sometimes divided between Asia and Australasia, usually

along the anthropologic Melanesian line or Weber's Line. Indonesia controls the western half of New

Guinea, geographically part of Australasia. The eastern half of the island is part of Papua New Guinea

which is considered to be part of the Pacific. East Timor, an independent state that was formerly a

territory of Indonesia, which is geographically part of Asia, is classified by the United Nations as part of

the "South-Eastern Asia" block. It is expected to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,[33]

having been involved as an ASEAN Regional Forum member since independence, and has participated in

the Southeast Asian Games since 2003. Occasionally, all of the Malay Archipelago is included in Oceania,

although this is extremely rare, especially as most of the archipelago lies on the Asian continental shelf.

The Commonwealth of Australia includes island possessions in Oceania and closer to Indonesia than the

Australian mainland.

Antarctica

Antarctica along with its outlying islands have no permanent population. All land claims south of 60°S

latitude are held in abeyance by the Antarctic Treaty System.

The South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are closer to Antarctica than to any other continent.

However, they are politically associated with the inhabited Falkland Islands which are closer to South

America. Furthermore, Argentina, a South American country, maintains its irredentist claims on the

islands. The continental shelf boundary separates the two island groups.

The Prince Edward Islands are located between Africa and Antarctica, and are the territory of South

Africa, an African country. The Australian Macquarie Island and the New Zealand Antipodes Islands,

Auckland Islands, and Campbell Islands, are all located between the Oceanian countries of Australia and

New Zealand and Antarctica.

Australia's Heard Island and McDonald Islands and the French Kerguelen Islands are located on the

Kerguelen Plateau, on the Antarctic continental plate. The French Crozet Islands, Île Amsterdam, Île

Saint-Paul, and the Norwegian Bouvet Island are also located on the Antarctic continental plate, and are

not often associated with other continents.

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Youthpass

-

Ghid

practic

Certificatul Youthpass

este un

instrument

cu ajutorul c

ă

ruia participan

ţ

ii la

proiecte finan

ţ

ate prin intermediul Programului "Tineret în Ac

ţ

iune" – Serviciul

European de Voluntariat, dar

nu numai - pot descrie activit

ăţ

ile desf

ăş

urate

ş

i

rezultatele înv

ăţă

rii lor în cadrul proiectelor la care particip

ă

.

În urma stagiului SEV, voluntarul are dreptul de a i se elibera un certificat

Youthpass (vezi un exemplu

aici

), care este un document de recunoa

ş

tere a

activit

ăţ

ilor de formare

ş

i mai ales a competen

ţ

elor ob

ţ

inute în cadrul

proiectului desf

ăş

urat prin programul Tineret în Ac

ţ

iune (TiA). Certificatul

vizeaz

ă

competen

ţ

ele ob

ţ

inute de voluntar în contexte non-formale (

ş

i

informale)

ş

i ofer

ă

tinerilor voluntari implica

ţ

i în proiecte TiA posibilitatea de a

descrie ce au f

ă

cut / înv

ăţ

at / ob

ţ

inut (în termeni de activit

ăţ

i, cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e, abilit

ăţ

i, atitudini) prin

participarea la proiectele respective.

A

ş

adar, în certificatul Youthpa

ss avem de-a face cu competen

ţ

e.

Dar

ce

sunt

competen

Ţ

ele

?

Prin competen

ţă

, se în

ţ

elege:

capacitatea unei persoane de a aplica diverse

cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e

ş

i deprinderi practice

,

de a manifesta

atitudinile

potrivite cerute de practicarea unei anumite ocupa

ţ

ii

ş

i

de a asigura combinarea

ş

i transferarea tuturor acestora în situatii

ş

i medii de munc

ă

diferite, în scopul realizarii activit

ăţ

ilor cerute la locul de munc

ă

, la nivelul calitativ

specificat în standardul ocupa

ţ

ional.

Pe scurt,

competen

ţ

a

este în

ţ

eleas

ă

drept o combina

ţ

ie de aptitudini, cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e

ş

i atitudini,

care include de asemenea motiva

ţ

ia de a înv

ăţ

a.

Orice adult acumuleaz

ă

cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e

ş

i deprinderi practice diverse, de-a lungul vietii,

prin experien

ţ

a la locul de munc

ă

, auto-instruire sau orice modalitate spontan

ă

de

rela

ţ

ionare cu familia

ş

i societatea. În certificatul Youthpass este vorba îns

ă

despre

competen

ţ

ele dobândite altfel decât prin intermediul

ş

colii sau al unor cursuri

organizate în cadrul unor institu

ţ

ii specializate, autorizate în acest scop, mai exact,

prin experien

ţ

e de educa

ţ

ie non-formal

ă

, concept care st

ă

la baza tuturor proiectelor

Tineret în Ac

ţ

iune.

Certificatul Youthpass se refer

ă

la a

ş

a-numitele competen

ţ

e cheie (key competences).

Competen

ţ

ele cheie

(

EQF, Education and training 2010

) reprezint

ă

un pachet transferabil

ş

i

multifunc

ţ

ional de cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e, aptitudini

ş

i atitudini generale, necesar tuturor în vederea

dezvolt

ă

rii personale

ş

i a incluziunii lor sociale

ş

i profesionale. Ele ar trebui s

ă

fie dobândite la

sfâr

ş

itul înv

ăţă

mântului obligatoriu, pentru a func

ţ

iona ca baza a activit

ăţ

ilor ulterioare de

înv

ăţ

are/formare. Competen

ţ

ele cheie sunt esen

ţ

iale pentru:

Dezvoltarea personal

ă

de-a lungul întregii vie

ţ

i (capital cultural),

Incluziunea social

ă

ş

i cet

ăţ

enia activ

ă

(capital social),

Ocupare

ş

i dezvoltare profesional

ă

(capital uman).

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti

vare şi Promovare în Romania a

Oportunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Certificatul Youthpass cuprinde 3 p

ă

r

ţ

i:

Partea 1.

certific

ă

participarea

ta la stagiul SEV

ş

i cuprinde detalii despre tine;

Partea 2.

– descrie, individualizat,

proiectul, activit

ăţ

ile, sarcinile

ş

i rolul t

ă

u

în acesta, cât

ş

i detalii despre organiza

ţ

ia gazd

ă

;

Partea 2.

o auto-evaluare a competen

ţ

elor

ob

ţ

inute de tine în urma implic

ă

rii, adic

ă

rezultatele procesului de înv

ăţ

are non-formal

ă

, încadrate sub cele 8 competen

ţ

e cheie;

De

ş

i nu reprezinta o acreditare formal

ă

a competentelor, un tân

ă

r voluntar poate folosi

certificatul Youthpass pentru a demonstra participarea sa la o experienta educationala

ş

i o

perioada de invatare non-formal

ă

, mai exact stagiul SEV. În plus, Youthpass-ul poate fi util în

relatia voluntarilor SEV cu o serie de actori cu

care acesta va interactiona în urma stagiului:

angajatori, instiutii de educa

ţ

ie, organizatii non-guvernamentale, formatori etc.

Po

Ţ

i

folosi

Certificatul

Youthpass

pentru:

* a-ti administra mai bine pa

rcursul de formare individuala

ş

i a reflecta rezultatele invatarii non-

formale;

* a obtine o recunoastere social

a a activitatii desfasurate;

* a-ti mari sansele de angajare;

* a-ti mari sansele de acces la diferite form

e de invatare pe tot parcursul vietii (lifelong

learning);

* a te l

ă

uda la prieteni

ş

i familie cu ce ai înv

ăţ

at sau pentru a compara cu al

ţ

i voluntari!

Cele

8 competen

ţ

e pentru înv

ăţ

area de-a lungul întregii vie

ţ

i

adoptate de Comisia

Europeana în 2006

ş

i care se regasesc

ş

i în certificatul Youthpass sunt:

1. Comunicare în limba materna

2. Comunicare intr-o limba straina

3. Competente matematice

ş

i competente de baza în stiinta

ş

i tehnologie

4. Competente ICT (digitale)

5. Learning to learn- a stii cum

ş

i ce sa inveti

6. Competente interpersonale

ş

i civice

7. Spirit antreprenorial

8. Intelegere

ş

i manifestare culturala

Iata la ce se refer

ă

fiecare din aceste competen

ţ

e:

1. Comunicare în limba materna:

-

capacitatea de a comunica în scris

ş

i verbal, de a intelege

ş

i a-i face pe altii sa inteleaga

diferite mesaje în situatii variate

-

capacitatea de a citi

ş

i intelege diferite texte adoptand strategia potrivita scopului citirii

(informare / instruire / de placere)

ş

i diferitelor ti

puri de text

-

capacitatea de a scrie texte pe

ntru o varietate de scopuri;

monitorizarea procesului de

scriere, de la „draft” pa

na la „bun de tipar”

-

capacitatea de a distinge informat

ia relevanta de cea nerelevanta

-

capacitatea de a-ti formula propriile argumente intr-o maniera convingatoare

ş

i a lua în

consideratie alte puncte de vede

re experimate atat verbal cat

ş

i în scris

2. Comunicare intr-o limba straina:

-

capacitatea de a comunica în scris

ş

i verbal, de a intelege

ş

i a-i face pe altii sa inteleaga

diferite mesaje în situatii variate

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti

vare şi Promovare în Romania a

Oportunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

-

capacitata de a initia

ş

i sustine conversatii pe subiecte familiare

-

capacitatea de a citi

ş

i intelege texte scrise de nespecialisti intr-o gama variata de

subiecte sau texte specializate intr-un domeniu familiar

-

capacitatea de a utiliza elemente ajutatoare (diagrame, harti, notite) pentru a intelege

sau produce texte scrise sau mesaje verbale

(conversatii, instructiuni, interviuri,

discursuri)

3. Competente matematice

ş

i competente de baza în stiinta

ş

i tehnologie

:

-

capacitatea de a urmari

ş

i evalua argumentele oferite de ceilalti

ş

i de a descoperi ideile de

baza în aceste argumente

-

capacitatea de a gandi

ş

i rationa matematic, de a intelege

ş

i utiliza diferite reprezentari

ale obiectelor, fenomenelor

ş

i situatiilor matematice

-

capacitatea de a distinge intre concepte mate

matice (de exemplu: di

stictia intre afirmatie

ş

i supozitie)

-

capacitatea de a utiliza elemente

ş

i instrumente ajutatoare (inclusiv tehnologii

informationale)

4. Competente ICT (digitale):

-

capacitatea de a utiliza

ş

i manipula instrumente tehnologice

-

capacitatea de a recunoaste trasaturile

esentiale ale fenomenelor studiate

-

capacitatea de a comunica concluziile

ş

i rationamentele care au stat la baza acestora

5. Competente de invatare – a sti cum

ş

i ce sa inveti (learning to learn):

-

capacitatea de a aloca timp invatatului

-

autonomie, disciplina, perseveren

ta în procesul de invatare

-

capacitatea de concentr

are pe termen scurt

ş

i pe termen lung

-

capacitatea de a reflecta

critic asupra obiectului

ş

i scopului invatarii

-

capacitatea de a comunica, ca parte a procesului de invatare, utilizand mijloacele potrivite

(intonatie, gestica, mimica etc.)

6. Competente interpersonale

ş

i civice:

-

capacitatea de a manifesta solidaritate în

a rezolva problemele care afecteaza

comunitatea locala sa

u comunitatea larga

-

capacitatea de a relationa eficient cu institutii din domeniul public

-

capacitatea de a profita de op

ortunitatile oferite de UE

-

capacitatea de a comunica

constructiv în situatii

sociale diferite (a tolera alte puncte de

vedere, a constientiza responsabilitatea individuala

ş

i colectiva)

-

capacitatea de a crea incredere

ş

i empatie în alti indivizi

-

capacitatea de a separa intre viata personal

ă

ş

i cea profesionala

-

capacitatea de a constientiza

ş

i intelege identitatea culturala nationala în interactiune cu

identitatea culturala a Europei

ş

i a restului lumii

-

capacitatea de a observa

ş

i intelege puncte de vedere ca

re tin de contexte culturale

diferite

7. Spirit antreprenorial:

-

capacitatea de a elabora

ş

i implementa un proiect

-

capacitatea de a lucra în mod cooperant

ş

i flexibil în cadrul unei echipe

-

capacitatea de initiativa

ş

i capacitatea de a raspund

e pozitiv la schimbari

-

abilitatea de a-ti identifica punctele slabe

ş

i punctele forte

-

capacitatea de a evalua

ş

i a-ti asuma riscuri în diverse situatii

8. Intelegere

ş

i manifestare culturala:

-

capacitatea de a te exprima artistic printr

-o gama variata de

mijloace media, în

concordanta cu abilitatile individuale

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti

vare şi Promovare în Romania a

Oportunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

-

capacitatea de a aprecia

ş

i a te bucura de arta diferitelor culturi

-

capacitatea de a identifica oportunitati economice

ş

i de le utiliza în cadrul activitatilor

culturale

-

capacitatea de a-ti manifesta creativitatea

ş

i a-ti exprima punctele de vedere fata de

ceilalti

(Sursa:

http://www.europass-ro.ro/in

dex.php?page=competente

)

cum

complet

ă

m

un

certificat

Youthpass?

Ei bine, exista mai multe

etape

în construirea acestui certificat:

1.

Stabilirea obiectivelor de invatare ale voluntarului

– acest lucru este esential pentru

procesul de invatare al voluntarului, care trebuie sa fie unul planificat

ş

i urmarit.

Stabilirea obiectivelor de invatare are loc la inceputul stagiului de voluntariat

ş

i se

realizeaza cu sprijinul mentorului, care ghidea

za voluntarul în identi

ficarea aspectelor pe

care vrea sa le invete sau a competentelor pe

care doreste sa le dezvolte, pornind de la

nevoile voluntarului

ş

i oportunitatile oferite de activitatile sale de voluntariat, cu atat mai

mult cu cat, inca de la elaborarea proiectului, organizatia care scrie proiectul identifica

potentialele obiective de invatare pentru viitorii voluntari.

2.

Urmarirea indeplinirii obiectivelor de invatare

, prin observare, dialog, auto-reflectie,

etc.

Ş

i în acest proces, voluntarul este sustinul de mentor, în cadrul intalnirilor constante

cu acesta, în timpul carora mentorul faciliteaza voluntarului procesul de analiza

ş

i reflectie

asupra aspectelor invatate, a descoperirilor personale sau profesionale realizate de

voluntar, a provocarilor cu care

acesta se confrunta, dar

ş

i a succeselor obtinute. Din

toate activitatile

ş

i trairile voluntarului, atat în

timpul muncii de voluntariat cat

ş

i în afara

acesteia, în timpul liber, voluntarul poate

extrage invataminte, poate acumula abilitati,

poate dezvolta noi atitudini, pe care e bine sa le noteze, sa le mentina evidenta, sa le

pastreze sub diferite forme (blo

g, jurnal, caietul invatarii, inregistrari, desene), pentru a-i

fi mai usor sa descrie propria invatare la finalul stagiului. În aceasta etapa este foarte

importanta relatia stabilit cu mentorul

ş

i increderea creata intre voluntar

ş

i mentor,

deoarece procesul de auto

-evaluare necesita timp

ş

i deschidere din partea voluntarului.

Multi voluntari nu sunt obisnuiti cu aceasta

abordare de a se gandi mereu la propria

invatare

ş

i au nevoie de ghidare

ş

i sprijin. În plus fata de intalnirile cu mentorul,

voluntarul poate sa urmareasca

ş

i mai ales sa evalueze propria invatare

ş

i în cadrul

Intalnirii de Evaluare Intermediara (Mid-Term Meeting), daca stagiul sau dureaza cel

putin 4 luni.

3.

Colectarea tuturor notitelor

ş

i reflectiilor despe propria invatare

ş

i formularea

acestora ca rezultate ale invatarii.

Acest proces are loc la finalul stagiului, de

asemenea sub indrumarea ment

orului, care cunoaste intreg

ul parcurs al voluntarului

ş

i

poate oferi sprijin

ş

i feedback. Conditia ca acest proces sa fie unul eficient este ca

voluntarul sa isi doreasca sa realizeze acea

sta analiza, pentru a

identifica rezultatele

ş

i

impactul pe care stagiul l-a avut asupra formarii sale personale

ş

i profesionale. Practic în

acest moment al evolutiei volunt

arului, acesta evalueaza daca

ş

i-a indeplinit sau nu

obiectivele de invatare stabilite la inceputul stagiului

ş

i, mai mult, analizeaza ce alte

cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e, abilitati

ş

i atitudini a acumulat, în afara celor prevaute initial. Este recomandat

ca în acest moment voluntarul

sa listeze ce considera el ca

a invatat sau a dezvoltat, fara

sa faca referire la cele 8 competente cheie.

Abia mai apoi, dupa ce punctele de invatare

au fost formulate coerent, cu referiri la momentele sau activitatile din stagiu care au

provocat acea invatare, se va incerca incadrarea celor invatate pe una sau mai multe din

cele 8 competente cheie.

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti

vare şi Promovare în Romania a

Oportunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

4.

Finalizarea descrierii propriei invatari

,

incadrand fiecare tip de invatare sub

competenta cheie corespunzatoare. Exista seturi

de intrebari ajutatoare pentru fiecare din

cele 8 competente cheie, care ajuta procesul de analiza

ş

i indica la ce se refera fiecare

competenta (

http://www.youthpass.eu/ro/youthpass/guide/

- paginile 66-73). Mai mult,

daca invatarea nu se incadreaza

intr-una din cele 8 competen

te cheie, exista un al 9-lea

camp pentru alte competente. Voluntarul nu tr

ebuie sa tinteasca sa

completeze toate cele

8 competente, ci doar cele în legatura cu care simte ca s-a dezvoltat,

ca a acumulat ceva.

Este recomandat de asemenea

ca voluntar sa gandeasca prop

ria invatare în termeni de:

cuno

ş

tin

ţ

e acumulate, abilitati dezvoltate

ş

i atitudini dobandite sau constientizate,

acestea fiind cele 3 componente ale unei compet

ente. În acest sens, este de mare ajutor

etapa în care voluntarul elab

oreaza propriul sau raport fi

nal de activitate în urma

stagiului, trecand în revista toate activitatile în care a fost implicat, fiindu-i astfel mai usor

sa repereze momentele de

invatare proprie.

5.

Eliberarea propriu-zisa a certificatului.

Aceasta se realizeaza de catre organizatia

gazda a voluntarului

ş

i se face online, la adresa

http://www.youthpass.eu

.

-

Coordonatorul proiectului va introduce în certificatul electronic date despre organizatia

gazda, despre proiect (denumire,

durata, loc de desfasurare)

ş

i despre voluntar (nume,

data

ş

i locul nasterii). Exista de asemenea o descriere generala a ce presupune Serviciul

European de Voluntariat, folosi

toare celor din afara sectorului

de tineret, care vor vrea sa

analizeze certificatul

ş

i nu stiu nimic despre Tineret în Ac

ţ

iune sau SEV (viitori angajatori,

institutii educationale, etc). Aceasta prima pagina a certificatului Youthpass, care

reprezinta un certificat de participare, va fi

semnata de reprezentantul

organizatiei gazda.

-

A doua pagina a certificatului contine o descriere a rolului

ş

i sarcinilor pe care le-a avut

voluntarul în cadrul proiectului, urmata de

o descriere a organiziat

ie gazda. E important

sa fie mentionate intre activitatile voluntarului

ş

i cursurile de formare la care a participat,

nu doar cele oferite de program (Training inainte de plecare, Training la sosire, Intalnirea

de evaluare intermediara) ci

ş

i cursul de limba straina sau alte cursuri la care a fost trimis

de organizatia gazda. Aceasta parte a certificatului ofera informatii care faciliteaza

intelegerea cadrului de desfasurare a unui proiec

t SEV, inclusiv cel al organizatiei gazda,

care poate avea o cultura de lucru sau or

ganizationala di

ferita. De asemenea, este

mentionata organizatia de trimitere a voluntarului, care poate oferi credibilitate

voluntarului în momentul în care doreste sa

foloseasca certificatul în tara sa natala.

Aceasta pagina este semnata de o persoana

care cunoaste proiectul – fie coordonatorul

acestuia, fie mentorul.

-

Ultima parte a certificatului

ş

i cea mai consistenta, contine descrierea rezultatelor invatarii

voluntarului. Se mentioneaza numele ment

orului cu care a lucrat voluntarul

ş

i faptul ca

aceasta parte a certificatului es

te rezultatul dialogului dintre

cei doi. De aceea, ambii vor

semna aceasta parte a certificatului.

Acum ca stiti cum se completeaza

ş

i elibereaza un certificat Youthpass, va intrebati poate:

care

este

utilitatea

lui

în

contextul

Serviciului

European

de

Voluntariat?

Pentru voluntari:

-

Youthpass e dovada oficiala a participarii lor active în proiectul SEV. Il pot folosi ca

referinta atunci cand aplica, de exemplu, pe

ntru un loc de munca, sau pentru accesul

intr-un sistem educational.

-

Youthpass presupune recunoasterea propriei lor participari directe

ş

i active în cadrul unui

proiect, a experientei lor de mobilitate, punand accent pe abilitatea lor de a invata din

aceasta experienta interculturala

ş

i de a se dezvolta personal

ş

i profesional.

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti

vare şi Promovare în Romania a

Oportunităţilor de Voluntariat European

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva

re şi Promovarea în Romania a Opor

tunităţilor de Voluntariat European

-

Youthpass ofera oportunitatea de a document

a invatarea care se petrece în cadrul

Serviciului European de Voluntariat. El demonstreaza în plus angajamentul

ş

i participarea

activa intr-un context european

ş

i poate deveni o parte importanta din portofoliul unui

tanar, cu atat mai mult pentru cei

care nu s-au incheiat educatia formal

ă

.

Pentru organizatorii proiectului SEV (organizatii, mentori):

-

Youthpass e o opotunitate extraordinar

a de a folosi un sistem de validare

ş

i recunoastere

a muncii voluntarilor utilizat în intreaga Europa

-

Youthpass demonstreaza ca organizatia dvs. a

implementat un proiect care a fost verificat

din punct de vedere calitativ de

Agentia Nationala din tara dvs.

Certificatul Youthpass face parte din strategia Comisiei Europene de a stimula

recunoa

ş

terea invatarii non-formale. Ca instrument de vizualizare

ş

i validare a

rezultatelor invatarii dobandite în proiectele Tineret în Ac

ţ

iune, Youthpass pune în

practica politica de recunoastere. Pentru ca participantii în proiecte TiA descriu cea au

realizat în proiect

ş

i ce competente au dobandit, Youthpass sprijina procesul de

reflectie asupra procesului personal de invatare non-formal

ă

.

În plus, prin faptul ca documenteaz

ă

valoarea adaugata a proiectelo

r TiA, certificatul Youthpass

face vizibila

ş

i sprijina cetatenia euro

peana activa a tinerilor

ş

i lucratorilor de tineret. Fiind un

instrument de validare a invatarii non-formale din domeniul tineretului utilizat în intreaga

Europa, Youthpass contribuie la in

tarirea recunoasterii sociale a sect

orului de tineret. În cele din

urma, prin ilustrarea

ş

i validarea competentelor cheie intr-un certificat, Youthpass isi propune sa

contribuie la cresterea gradului de angajabilitate al tinerilor

ş

i lucratorilor de tineret.