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:

.1 Investment in government bonds

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

.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

.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

.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

.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

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

bonds), .2 (Investment in financial assets of Cypriot companies or
organizations), .3 (Investment in real estate, land development and
infrastructure projects), .4 (Purchase or creation or participation in Cypriot
businesses or companies) and .5 (Deposits in Cypriot banks)
The applicant is required to have a combination of the above amounting to at least 5,0 million.
or

.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

.8 Major Collective Investments

The Council of Ministers shall have the right on special occasions, to reduce the above criteria
(.1 (Investment in Government Bonds), .2 (Investment in financial assets of Cypriot
companies or Cypriot organizations), .3 (Investment in real estate, land development or
infrastructure projects) and .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 () and (), the investment for the
Criteria 1 until 4 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 sellers 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 sellers 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
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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 statesIreland, Sweden and the United
Kingdomdecided to allow unrestricted access to their labour markets. By December 2009, all but two
member statesAustria and Germanyhad 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 naturalisation

Acquisition by descent Acquisition by marriage

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]

Yesafter 3 years cohabitation in Belgium

5 years' residencecan petition federal government[citation needed]

10 years' residenceautomatic 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, Spanishand

EU citizenshipis "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
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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 crossborder 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.
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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 nonEU 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.islaoffshore.com/sec...

145,483 views 114 upvotes Updated 29 Jul

Downvote
Comments14+
More Answers Below.
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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

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Comment1
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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 havent 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 Maltas
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 CentreRight. 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
Europes 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

305 pp., 22.95,

ISBN 0-7425-3007-8 (pbk)
Who are the Europeans Now?
Edward Moxon-Browne (Ed.)
Ashgate, Aldershot, 2004, vi

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 Monnets 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 EUs 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

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 Katzensteins
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 everchanging) social roles and positions that they are found in. The
philosophers unfashionable answer will be a transcendental one: that it is

rationality
, perhaps of a richer, more autonomous Kantian variety than
homo conomicus
, 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 antiindividualist, 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 78 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
Europes 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 psychological 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 transnational 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 authors own cross-national design. Citrin and Sides is stateof-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
Bruters 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, Meinhofs 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, interpersonal 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
Europes 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 volumes 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 approaches 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 associationsand a thousand 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
Gabels 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,
Europes 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, 147.
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/jrp/ or /jrp/[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
Europea concept dating back to classical antiquityare 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 Pre1945: Industrial growth
7.2 19451990: The Cold War
7.3 19912007: Integration and reunification
7.4 20082010: 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
Switzerland

Turkey
Ukraine
United
Kingdom
Far. (Dk)
Vat.

Adriatic
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
Cdiz
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 ChristianLatin 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 divisionas much cultural as
geographicalwas 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: , Eurp; 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
(eurus), meaning "wide, broad"[40] and /-/- (ps/p-/opt-), meaning "eye, face,
countenance",[41] hence Eurp, "wide-gazing", "broad of aspect" (compare with glaukpis (
'grey-eyed') Athena or bopis ( '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 *h1regos,
"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, 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 uzhu (); a similar Chinese-derived term sh (?) is also
sometimes used in Japanese such as in the Japanese name of the European Union, sh Reng (
?), despite the katakana Yroppa (?) 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 Vina, 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 periodmarked by the cultivation of crops and the raising of livestock,
increased numbers of settlements and the widespread use of potterybegan 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 13151317 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 alonea 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 popesone in Avignon and one in Romeclaimed 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 (15171648), 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 Arme 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 nationstate, 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 (17681774). 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 19321933, 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 193738 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 MolotovRibbentrop 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 eastwest 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 23% or less, in
European Russia 510%. 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 Lsch

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
sprucepinebirch 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
Biaowiea 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

(km)

Population
Population density

(per km)

Capital Name(s) in official language(s)

Albania Coat of arms of Albania.svg

Albania 28,748 2,831,741

98.5

Andorra
Arms of Andorra.svg
Andorra

Andorra

468

Armenia
Arms of Armenia.svg
Hayastan

Armenia [j]

29,800 3,229,900

Tirana Shqipria

68,403 146.2 Andorra la Vella

101

Yerevan

Austria EU Member States' CoA Series- Austria.svg

sterreich
Azerbaijan
Coats of arms of None.svg
Azrbaycan
Belarus Coats of arms of None.svg

Austria 83,858 8,169,929

Azerbaijan [k] 86,600 9,165,000

Belarus 207,560

Belgium
Royal Arms of Belgium.svg
Belgium
Brussels
Belgi/Belgique/Belgien
Bosnia and Herzegovina
51,129 3,843,126

9,458,000

45.6

30,528 11,007,000

Coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina.svg

75.2 Sarajevo
Bosna i Hercegovina

97.4

Vienna

105.8 Baku

Minsk Belarus
360.6

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria
Insigne Bulgaricum.svg Bulgaria
Blgarija

110,910

7,621,337

68.7

Sofia

Croatia EU Member States' CoA Series- Croatia.svg

Hrvatska

Croatia 56,542 4,437,460

77.7

Zagreb

85

Nicosia

Cyprus Lesser coat of arms of Cyprus.svg

Kpros/Kbrs

Cyprus [d]

Czech Republic Small coat of arms of the Czech Republic.svg

130.1 Prague esk republika

9,251 788,457

Czech Republic 78,866 10,256,760

Denmark
National Coat of arms of Denmark no crown.svg
5,564,219
129
Copenhagen Danmark
Estonia Insigne Estonicum.svg Estonia 45,226 1,340,194
Finland Coat of Arms of Finland Alternative style.svg
Helsinki
Suomi/Finland

Denmark

29

Tallinn Eesti

Finland 336,593

5,157,537

15.3

66,104,000

115.5

France Arms of France (UN variant).svg

Paris France

France [g]

547,030

Georgia (country)
Sakartvelo

Georgia [l]

69,700 4,661,473

Germany
Coat of arms of Germany.svg
Berlin Deutschland

Germany

357,021

Greece Lesser coat of arms of Greece.svg

Ellda

Greece 131,957

Arms of Georgia.svg

43,094

64

Tbilisi

80,716,000

233.2

11,123,034

80.7

Athens

Hungary
Arms of Hungary.svg
Magyarorszg
Iceland Arms of Iceland.svg
Republic of Ireland
ire/Ireland
Italy

Hungary

Iceland 103,000

Coat of arms of Ireland.svg

CoA Marina Mercantile.svg

Italy

Kazakhstan
Coats of arms of None.svg
Astana Qazaqstan/Kazahstan

93,030 10,075,034

108.3 Budapest

307,261

Reykjavk

2.7

Ireland 70,280 4,234,925

301,230

59,530,464

Kazakhstan [i] 2,724,900

15,217,711

Latvia 64,589 2,067,900

Liechtenstein Lesser arms of Liechtenstein.svg

Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein

Lithuania
Coat of arms of Lithuania.svg
Lietuva

Lithuania

Luxembourg Arms of Luxembourg.svg

Luxembourg
Luxembourg Ltzebuerg/Luxemburg/Luxembourg
Republic of Macedonia Coats of arms of None.svg
Skopje Makedonija
Malta Arms of Malta.svg

Malta 316

Moldova
Arms of Moldova.svg
Moldova

397,499

Moldova [a]

34.2

45.8

2,586 448,569

173.5

25,713 2,054,800

1,257.9 Valletta

33,843 4,434,547

1.95

Montenegro Arms of Montenegro.svg

Podgorica
Crna Gora

Montenegro

13,812 616,258

44.6

Netherlands
Arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.svg
16,902,103
393.0 Amsterdam
Nederland

Netherlands [h]

41,526

Norway

Poland Herb Polski.svg Poland 312,685

385,178

38,625,478

Vilnius

81.1

131.0 Chiinu

Monaco

Blason Norvge.svg
Norge/Noreg

Riga

Malta

Monaco
Coat of arms of Grimaldi.svg
Monaco
Monaco

Norway

5.6

32,842 205.3 Vaduz

65,200 2,988,400

Macedonia

Dublin

197.7 Rome Italia

Latvia Lesser coat of arms of Latvia (escutcheon).svg

Latvija

160

60.3

sland

31,987 16,403.6

5,018,836

123.5 Warsaw

15.5

Polska

Oslo

Portugal
Shield of the Kingdom of Portugal (1481-1910).png
10,409,995
110.1 Lisbon Portugal
Romania
Coat of arms of Romania.svg
Bucharest
Romnia

Romania

Russia Coat of Arms of the Russian Federation.svg

8.3
Moscow
Rossiya

238,391

Russia [b]

San Marino
Insigne Sancti Marini.svg
San Marino

San Marino

Serbia Arms of Serbia.svg

88,361 7,120,666

Serbia [f]

Portugal [e]

61

91,568

21,698,181

17,075,400

143,975,923

27,730 454.6 San Marino

91.9

Belgrade

Slovakia
Coat of arms of Slovakia.svg
Bratislava
Slovensko

Slovakia

48,845 5,422,366

111.0

Slovenia
Coat of arms of Slovenia.svg
Ljubljana
Slovenija

Slovenia

20,273 2,050,189

101

Spain

File-Arms of Spain (corrections of heraldist requests).svg

47,059,533
93.2 Madrid Espaa

Sweden

Armoiries Sude moderne.svg Sweden

Stockholm
Sverige

Switzerland
Coat of Arms of Switzerland (Pantone).svg
176.8 Bern Schweiz/Suisse/Svizzera/Svizra
Turkey Coats of arms of None.svg
Trkiye
Ukraine
80.2

Spain

Srbija

504,851

449,964

9,090,113

19.7

Switzerland

41,290 7,507,000

Turkey [m]

783,562

77,695,904

101

Lesser Coat of Arms of Ukraine.svg

Kiev
Ukrajina

Ukraine

603,700

48,396,470

United Kingdom
64,105,654

Arms of the United Kingdom.svg

United Kingdom
244.2 London
United Kingdom

Vatican City
Coat of arms of the Vatican City.svg
City
Civitas Vaticana
Total

91.0

Vatican City

0.44

900

Ankara

244,820

2,045.5 Vatican

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

(km)

Population

(1 July 2002 est.)

(per km)

Population density

Capital

Abkhazia
Coat of arms of Abkhazia.svg
Sukhumi
Kosovo Coat of arms of Kosovo.svg
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
138,800
12

Abkhazia [p]

Kosovo [o]

8,432 216,000

10,887 1,804,838[194] 220

Pristina

Arms of Nagorno-Karabakh.svg Nagorno-Karabakh [q] 11,458

Stepanakert

Northern Cyprus
Arms of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.svg
3,355 265,100
78
Nicosia
South Ossetia N/A

South Ossetia [p]

Transnistria

Transnistria [a] 4,163 537,000

N/A

29

3,900 70,000 18
133

Northern Cyprus [d]

Tskhinvali
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
(km)

Area

Population

(1 July 2002 est.)

(per km)

Population density

Capital

land (Finland)

13,517 26,008 16.8

Faroe Islands (Denmark)

Mariehamn

1,399 46,011 32.9

Trshavn

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.

vte

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

Russia 3,458,402

United Kingdom

France 2,633,896

Italy

Spain 1,619,093

Turkey 1,508,407

2,157,123

2,641,432

Poland 996,477

Netherlands

818,249

10

Belgium

492,267

Rank

Country

GDP (nominal, 2015)

millions of USD
1

Germany

3,413,483

United Kingdom

France 2,469,530

Italy

Spain 1,230,207

Russia 1,175,996

Turkey 806,510

Netherlands

749,365

Switzerland

688,434

10

Poland 491,239

2,853,357

1,842,835

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.
Pre1945: 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.
19451990: 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.
19912007: 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]
20082010: 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 1524 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 So Tom and Prncipe, 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 selfidentification 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 (10951291), the
Reconquista (7111492), 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, Curaao 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 KumaManych 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

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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 mountainand-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 VolgaDon 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
KumaManych 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 VolgaDon
Canal and the Volga, the other following the KumaManych 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 KumaManych 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 KumaManych 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 KumaManych 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 VolgaBaltic 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 KumaManych Depression (more precisely, the Manych River, the KumaManych 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, thiopia, 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 Darin 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, Curaao
and Trinidad and Tobago lie on the continental shelf of South America. On the other hand, the
Venezuelan Isla Aves and the Colombian San Andrs and Providencia lie on the North American shelf.
Asia and North America
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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 Galpagos 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 60S
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, le Amsterdam, le
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 i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor de Voluntariat European
Youthpass
Ghid

practic
Certificatul Youthpass
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rezultatele nv

rii lor n cadrul proiectelor la care particip


.
n urma stagiului SEV, voluntarul are dreptul de a i se elibera un certificat
Youthpass (vezi un exemplu
aici
), care este un document de recunoa

tere a
activit

ilor de formare

i mai ales a competen

elor ob

inute n cadrul
proiectului desf

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vizeaz

competen


ele ob

inute de voluntar n contexte non-formale (

i
informale)

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tinerilor voluntari implica

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capacitatea unei persoane de a aplica diverse

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i (capital cultural),

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(capital uman).
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti
vare i Promovare n Romania a
Oportunitilor de Voluntariat European
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva
re i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor de Voluntariat European
Certificatul Youthpass cuprinde 3 p

i:
Partea 1.

certific

participarea
ta la stagiul SEV

i cuprinde detalii despre tine;

Partea 2.
descrie, individualizat,
proiectul, activit

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, mai exact stagiul SEV. n plus, Youthpass-ul poate fi util n

relatia voluntarilor SEV cu o serie de actori cu
care acesta va interactiona n urma stagiului:
angajatori, instiutii de educa

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Po

i
folosi
Certificatul
Youthpass
pentru:
* a-ti administra mai bine pa
rcursul de formare individuala

i a reflecta rezultatele invatarii nonformale;

* a obtine o recunoastere social

a a activitatii desfasurate;
* a-ti mari sansele de angajare;
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uda la prieteni

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i care se regasesc

i n certificatul Youthpass sunt:

1. Comunicare n limba materna
2. Comunicare intr-o limba straina
3. Competente matematice

i competente de baza n stiinta

i tehnologie
4. Competente ICT (digitale)
5. Learning to learn- a stii cum

i ce sa inveti
6. Competente interpersonale

i civice
7. Spirit antreprenorial
8. Intelegere

i manifestare culturala
Iata la ce se refer

fiecare din aceste competen


e:
1. Comunicare n limba materna:
capacitatea de a comunica n scris

i verbal, de a intelege

i a-i face pe altii sa inteleaga

diferite mesaje n situatii variate
capacitatea de a citi

i intelege diferite texte adoptand strategia potrivita scopului citirii

(informare / instruire / de placere)

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
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capacitatea de a distinge informat

ia relevanta de cea nerelevanta
capacitatea de a-ti formula propriile argumente intr-o maniera convingatoare

i a lua n
consideratie alte puncte de vede
re experimate atat verbal cat

i n scris
2. Comunicare intr-o limba straina:
capacitatea de a comunica n scris

i verbal, de a intelege

i a-i face pe altii sa inteleaga

diferite mesaje n situatii variate
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vare i Promovare n Romania a
Oportunitilor de Voluntariat European
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva
re i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor de Voluntariat European
-

capacitata de a initia

i sustine conversatii pe subiecte familiare

capacitatea de a citi

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

i competente de baza n stiinta

i tehnologie
:
capacitatea de a urmari

i evalua argumentele oferite de ceilalti

i de a descoperi ideile de

baza n aceste argumente

capacitatea de a gandi

i rationa matematic, de a intelege

i utiliza diferite reprezentari

ale obiectelor, fenomenelor

i situatiilor matematice
capacitatea de a distinge intre concepte mate
matice (de exemplu: di
stictia intre afirmatie

i supozitie)
capacitatea de a utiliza elemente

i instrumente ajutatoare (inclusiv tehnologii

informationale)
4. Competente ICT (digitale):
capacitatea de a utiliza

i manipula instrumente tehnologice

capacitatea de a recunoaste trasaturile
esentiale ale fenomenelor studiate
capacitatea de a comunica concluziile

i rationamentele care au stat la baza acestora

5. Competente de invatare a sti cum

i ce sa inveti (learning to learn):

capacitatea de a aloca timp invatatului
autonomie, disciplina, perseveren
ta n procesul de invatare
capacitatea de concentr
are pe termen scurt

i pe termen lung
capacitatea de a reflecta
critic asupra obiectului

i scopului invatarii
capacitatea de a comunica, ca parte a procesului de invatare, utilizand mijloacele potrivite
(intonatie, gestica, mimica etc.)
6. Competente interpersonale

i civice:
capacitatea de a manifesta solidaritate n
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 n situatii
sociale diferite (a tolera alte puncte de
vedere, a constientiza responsabilitatea individuala

i colectiva)
-

capacitatea de a crea incredere

i empatie n alti indivizi

capacitatea de a separa intre viata personal

i cea profesionala
capacitatea de a constientiza

i intelege identitatea culturala nationala n interactiune cu

identitatea culturala a Europei

i a restului lumii
capacitatea de a observa

i intelege puncte de vedere ca

re tin de contexte culturale
diferite
7. Spirit antreprenorial:
capacitatea de a elabora

i implementa un proiect
capacitatea de a lucra n mod cooperant

i flexibil n cadrul unei echipe

capacitatea de initiativa

i capacitatea de a raspund
e pozitiv la schimbari
abilitatea de a-ti identifica punctele slabe

i punctele forte
capacitatea de a evalua

i a-ti asuma riscuri n diverse situatii

8. Intelegere

i manifestare culturala:
capacitatea de a te exprima artistic printr
-o gama variata de
mijloace media, n

concordanta cu abilitatile individuale

Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti
vare i Promovare n Romania a
Oportunitilor de Voluntariat European
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva
re i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor de Voluntariat European
capacitatea de a aprecia

i a te bucura de arta diferitelor culturi

capacitatea de a identifica oportunitati economice

i de le utiliza n cadrul activitatilor

culturale
capacitatea de a-ti manifesta creativitatea

i a-ti exprima punctele de vedere fata de

ceilalti
(Sursa:
http://www.europass-ro.ro/in
dex.php?page=competente
)

cum
complet

m
un
certificat
Youthpass?
Ei bine, exista mai multe
etape
n 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

i urmarit.
Stabilirea obiectivelor de invatare are loc la inceputul stagiului de voluntariat

i se
realizeaza cu sprijinul mentorului, care ghidea
za voluntarul n identi
ficarea aspectelor pe
care vrea sa le invete sau a competentelor pe
care doreste sa le dezvolte, pornind de la
nevoile voluntarului


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.

i n acest proces, voluntarul este sustinul de mentor, n cadrul intalnirilor constante

cu acesta, n timpul carora mentorul faciliteaza voluntarului procesul de analiza

i reflectie
asupra aspectelor invatate, a descoperirilor personale sau profesionale realizate de
voluntar, a provocarilor cu care
acesta se confrunta, dar

i a succeselor obtinute. Din

toate activitatile

i trairile voluntarului, atat n

timpul muncii de voluntariat cat

i n afara
acesteia, n 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. n aceasta etapa este foarte
importanta relatia stabilit cu mentorul

i increderea creata intre voluntar

i mentor,
deoarece procesul de auto
-evaluare necesita timp

i deschidere din partea voluntarului.

Multi voluntari nu sunt obisnuiti cu aceasta
abordare de a se gandi mereu la propria
invatare

i au nevoie de ghidare

i sprijin. n plus fata de intalnirile cu mentorul,

voluntarul poate sa urmareasca

i mai ales sa evalueze propria invatare

i n cadrul
Intalnirii de Evaluare Intermediara (Mid-Term Meeting), daca stagiul sau dureaza cel
putin 4 luni.
3.
Colectarea tuturor notitelor

i reflectiilor despe propria invatare

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

i
poate oferi sprijin

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

i
impactul pe care stagiul l-a avut asupra formarii sale personale


i profesionale. Practic n
acest moment al evolutiei volunt
arului, acesta evalueaza daca

i-a indeplinit sau nu

obiectivele de invatare stabilite la inceputul stagiului

i, mai mult, analizeaza ce alte

cuno

tin

e, abilitati

i atitudini a acumulat, n afara celor prevaute initial. Este recomandat

ca n 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 i Promovare n Romania a

Oportunitilor de Voluntariat European
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva
re i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor 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

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 n legatura cu care simte ca s-a dezvoltat,
ca a acumulat ceva.

Este recomandat de asemenea

ca voluntar sa gandeasca prop
ria invatare n termeni de:
cuno

tin

e acumulate, abilitati dezvoltate

i atitudini dobandite sau constientizate,

acestea fiind cele 3 componente ale unei compet
ente. n acest sens, este de mare ajutor
etapa n care voluntarul elab
oreaza propriul sau raport fi
nal de activitate n urma
stagiului, trecand n revista toate activitatile n 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

i se face online, la adresa

http://www.youthpass.eu

.
Coordonatorul proiectului va introduce n certificatul electronic date despre organizatia
gazda, despre proiect (denumire,
durata, loc de desfasurare)

i despre voluntar (nume,

data

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

i nu stiu nimic despre Tineret n Ac

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

i sarcinilor pe care le-a avut

voluntarul n cadrul proiectului, urmata de
o descriere a organiziat
ie gazda. E important
sa fie mentionate intre activitatile voluntarului

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

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 n momentul n care doreste sa
foloseasca certificatul n tara sa natala.
Aceasta pagina este semnata de o persoana
care cunoaste proiectul fie coordonatorul
acestuia, fie mentorul.
Ultima parte a certificatului


i cea mai consistenta, contine descrierea rezultatelor invatarii
voluntarului. Se mentioneaza numele ment
orului cu care a lucrat voluntarul

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

i elibereaza un certificat Youthpass, va intrebati poate:

care
este
utilitatea
lui
n
contextul
Serviciului
European
de
Voluntariat?
Pentru voluntari:
-

Youthpass e dovada oficiala a participarii lor active n 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

i active n cadrul unui

proiect, a experientei lor de mobilitate, punand accent pe abilitatea lor de a invata din
aceasta experienta interculturala

i de a se dezvolta personal

i profesional.
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Moti
vare i Promovare n Romania a
Oportunitilor de Voluntariat European
Proiectul IMPROVE: Informare, Motiva
re i Promovarea n Romania a Opor
tunitilor de Voluntariat European
Youthpass ofera oportunitatea de a document
a invatarea care se petrece n cadrul
Serviciului European de Voluntariat. El demonstreaza n plus angajamentul

i participarea
activa intr-un context european

i poate deveni o parte importanta din portofoliul unui

tanar, cu atat mai mult pentru cei
care nu s-au incheiat educatia formal

.
Pentru organizatorii proiectului SEV (organizatii, mentori):
Youthpass e o opotunitate extraordinar
a de a folosi un sistem de validare

i recunoastere
a muncii voluntarilor utilizat n 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

terea invatarii non-formale. Ca instrument de vizualizare

i validare a
rezultatelor invatarii dobandite n proiectele Tineret n Ac

iune, Youthpass pune n

practica politica de recunoastere. Pentru ca participantii n proiecte TiA descriu cea au
realizat n proiect

i ce competente au dobandit, Youthpass sprijina procesul de

reflectie asupra procesului personal de invatare non-formal

.
n plus, prin faptul ca documenteaz

valoarea adaugata a proiectelo

r TiA, certificatul Youthpass
face vizibila

i sprijina cetatenia euro

peana activa a tinerilor

i lucratorilor de tineret. Fiind un

instrument de validare a invatarii non-formale din domeniul tineretului utilizat n intreaga
Europa, Youthpass contribuie la in
tarirea recunoasterii sociale a sect
orului de tineret. n cele din

urma, prin ilustrarea

i validarea competentelor cheie intr-un certificat, Youthpass isi propune sa

contribuie la cresterea gradului de angajabilitate al tinerilor

i lucratorilor de tineret.