 Topographic map of the European Union | |
 | |
| Continent | Predominantly Europe, with territories elsewhere |
|---|---|
| Area | Ranked 8th |
| • Total | 4,225,104[1][2] km2 (1,631,322 sq mi) |
| • Land | 96.92% |
| • Water | 3.08% |
| Coastline | 65,993 km (41,006 mi) |
| Borders | Total land borders: 14,111.4 km Albania 282 km,Andorra 120.3 km,Belarus 1,050 km,Bosnia and Herzegovina 932 km, Liechtenstein 34.9 km,North Macedonia 394 km,Moldova 450 km,Monaco 4.4 km,Montenegro 23 km,Morocco 16 km, Norway 2,348 km,Russia 2,257 km,San Marino 39 km,Serbia 1,263 km,Suriname 510 km,Switzerland 1,811 km,Turkey 446 km,Ukraine 1,257 km,United Kingdom 656.2 km,Vatican City 3.2 km |
| Highest point | Mont Blanc 4,810.45 m |
| Lowest point | Lammefjord,Zuidplaspolder -7 m |
| Longest river | Danube 2,860 km |
| Largest lake | Vänern 5,650 km2 |
Thegeography of the European Union describes the geographic features of theEuropean Union (EU), a multinational polity that occupies a large portion of Europe and covers 4,225,104 km2 (1,631,322 sq mi).[1] Its European territory extends northeast to Finland, northwest to Ireland, southeast to Cyprus in Asia and southwest to the Spanishexclaves on theMediterranean shores of North Africa. Additionally, the EU includes numerous islands around the world, andFrench Guiana in South America.
Collectively, it represents theseventh largest territory in the world by area. Including all overseas territories, the EU shares borders with 20 countries.
The European Union has27 member states. See the geography of each current member state:
Most of the European Union is on theEuropean continent. The only member state of the EU which is geographically outside of Europe is Cyprus, which is inWest Asia. The EU includes less than half of the territory of Europe. Significant parts of the continent especially in the east (e.g.European Russia,Ukraine,Belarus) and smaller parts in the north and centre are not part of the EU. The member states of the EU haveland borders with 21 other countries and 3 dependent territories.
It is estimated that thecoastline of the continental European Union is 66,000 km (41,000 miles) long,[3] bordering the Atlantic Ocean,Mediterranean Sea andBlack Sea, and theBaltic Sea. With overseas territories included, the European Union is shored by the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as by the Caribbean Sea.European mountain ranges include theAlps,Pyrenees,Carpathian Mountains,Balkan Mountains andScandinavian Mountains, and the bordermountain ranges of theCaucasus and theUrals; the highest mountain in the Union isMont Blanc in the Alps.Lake Vänern in Sweden is the largest lake in the Union.
Several overseas territories and dependencies of various member states are also formally part of the EU (for Spain: theCanary Islands,Ceuta andMelilla; for Portugal: theAzores andMadeira; for France:Réunion,French Guiana,Martinique,Guadeloupe,Mayotte andSaint Martin) while in other cases territories associated with member states are not part of the EU (for Denmark:Greenland and theFaroe Islands; for the Netherlands:Aruba,Curaçao,Sint Maarten; for France:French Polynesia,Wallis and Futuna orNew Caledonia).
Including overseas territories of member states, the EU includes mosttypes of climate fromArctic totropical. Meteorological averages for the EU as a whole are therefore not meaningful. The majority of the population live in areas with aMediterranean climate (southern Europe), a temperatemaritime climate (western Europe), or awarm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (in eastern member states).
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Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainousSouthern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from the British Isles in the west to Poland in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains ofPyrenees,Alps,Carpathian andBalkan Mountains. The northern plains are delimited in the west by theScandinavian Mountains. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are theCeltic Sea, theNorth Sea, theBaltic Sea complex, and theBarents Sea.
The northern plain contains the old geological continent ofBaltica, and so may be regarded as the "main continent", while peripheral highlands and mountainous regions in south and west constitute fragments from various other geological continents.
The geology of Europe is hugely varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, like the rollingplains ofHungary.
The climate of the European Union is of atemperate,continental nature, with amaritime climate prevailing on the western coasts and amediterranean climate in the south. The climate is strongly conditioned by theGulf Stream, which warms the western region to levels unattainable at similar latitudes on other continents. Western Europe is oceanic, while eastern Europe is continental and dry. Four seasons occur in western Europe, while southern Europe experiences wetwinters and drysummers. Southern Europe is hot and dry during the summer months. The heaviest precipitation occurs downwind of water bodies due to the prevailingwesterlies, with higher amounts also seen in theAlps. Tornadoes occur within Europe, but tend to be weak. The Netherlands experiences a disproportionately high number of tornadic events.
The mildest climate within the European Union occurs in the Portuguese island ofMadeira, where the average temperature varies from 19 °C (66 °F) during the day and 13 °C (55 °F) at night in winter to 26 °C (79 °F) during the day and 19 °C (66 °F) at night in summer. Also[clarification needed], the mildest climate occurs in the Spanish island ofGran Canaria (Canary Islands), where the average temperature varies from 21 °C (70 °F) during the day and 15 °C (59 °F) at night in winter to 27 °C (81 °F) during the day and 22 °C (72 °F) at night in summer. Both these islands lie in the Atlantic. As for the land on the European continent, the mildest climate occurs in the northwest part ofIberian Peninsula (also Spain and Portugal), betweenBilbao,A Coruña andPorto. In this the coastal strand, the average temperature varies from 10–14 °C (50–57 °F) during the day and about 5 °C (41 °F) at night in January to 22–26 °C (72–79 °F) during the day and 15–16 °C (59–61 °F) at night in the middle of summer.
The most important rivers in the European Union areDanube,Rhine,Elbe,Oder,Vistula,Seine, andRhône, among others.
The following are the longest rivers in the EU alongside their approximate lengths:[4][5]
The most populous member state isGermany, with an estimated 82.1 million people, and the least populous member state is Malta with 0.5 million.Birth rates in the EU are low with the average woman having 1.6 children. The highest crude birth rates is in the Republic of Ireland with 16.876 births per thousand people per year and in France with 13.013 births per thousand people per year. Germany has the lowest birth rate in Europe with 8.221 births per thousand people per year.
| Member State | Population | Land area | Pop. density People/km2 [Figures don't agree!] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % of total | (km2) | % of total EU | ||
| Austria | 8,507,786 | 1.68% | 83,858 | 1.9% | 99.7 |
| Belgium | 11,203,992 | 2.21% | 30,510 | 0.7% | 352.0 |
| Bulgaria | 7,245,677 | 1.43% | 110,912 | 2.5% | 68.5 |
| Croatia | 4,246,700 | 0.84% | 56,594 | 1.3% | 75.8 |
| Cyprus | 858,000 | 0.17% | 9,250 | 0.2% | 86.6 |
| Czech Republic | 10,512,419 | 2.07% | 78,866 | 1.8% | 132.8 |
| Denmark | 5,627,235 | 1.11% | 43,094 | 1.0% | 128.1 |
| Estonia | 1,315,819 | 0.26% | 45,226 | 1.0% | 29.6 |
| Finland | 5,451,270 | 1.07% | 337,030 | 7.6% | 15.8 |
| France[10] | 65,856,609 | 12.98% | 643,548 | 14.6% | 99.6 |
| Germany | 80,780,000 | 15.92% | 357,021 | 8.1% | 229.9 |
| Greece | 10,992,589 | 2.17% | 131,957 | 3.0% | 85.4 |
| Hungary | 9,879,000 | 1.95% | 93,030 | 2.1% | 107.8 |
| Ireland | 4,604,029 | 0.91% | 70,280 | 1.6% | 64.3 |
| Italy | 60,782,668 | 11.98% | 301,320 | 6.8% | 200.4 |
| Latvia | 2,001,468 | 0.39% | 64,589 | 1.5% | 35.0 |
| Lithuania | 2,943,472 | 0.58% | 65,200 | 1.5% | 51.4 |
| Luxembourg | 549,680 | 0.11% | 2,586 | 0.1% | 190.1 |
| Malta | 425,384 | 0.08% | 316 | 0.0% | 1,305.7 |
| Netherlands | 16,829,289 | 3.32% | 41,526 | 0.9% | 396.9 |
| Poland | 38,495,659 | 7.59% | 312,685 | 7.1% | 121.9 |
| Portugal | 10,427,301 | 2.05% | 92,931 | 2.1% | 114.4 |
| Romania | 19,942,642 | 3.93% | 238,391 | 5.4% | 90.2 |
| Slovakia | 5,415,949 | 1.07% | 48,845 | 1.1% | 110.8 |
| Slovenia | 2,061,085 | 0.41% | 20,253 | 0.5% | 101.4 |
| Spain | 46,507,760 | 9.17% | 504,782 | 11.4% | 93.4 |
| Sweden | 9,644,864 | 1.90% | 449,964 | 10.2% | 20.6 |
| EU | 507,416,607 | 100.00% | 4,324,782 | 100.0% | 116.0 |
The European Union is home to moreglobal cities than any other region in the world. Over 16 cities with populations over one million inhabitants, counted in its city proper. Densely populated regions that have no single core but have emerged from the connection of several cities and are now encompassing large metropolitan areas areRhine-Ruhr having approximately 11.5 million inhabitants (Cologne,Düsseldorf,Dortmund et al.),Randstad approx. 7 million (Amsterdam,Rotterdam,The Hague et al.), theFlemish Diamond approx. 5.5 million,Frankfurt/Rhine-Main approx. 4 million (Frankfurt,Wiesbaden et al.) and theUpper Silesian Industry Area approx. 3.5 million. (Katowice,Sosnowiec et al.).[11]
 |  | |
 |  |  |
| City proper | Population City limits in millions | Density per km2 | Urban area | Population Urban area in millions | Metro area | Population Metro area in millions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin, Germany | 3.8 | 4,210 | Paris, France | 10.1 | Paris, France | 11.7 |
| Madrid, Spain | 3.1 | 1,985 | Madrid, Spain | 6.2 | Rhine-Ruhr, Germany | 10.6 |
| Rome, Italy | 2.7 | 5,198 | Ruhr, Germany | 5.1 | Randstad, Netherlands | 7.0 |
| Paris, France | 2.2 | 24,672 | Berlin, Germany | 4.8 | Madrid, Spain | 6.8 |
| Bucharest, Romania | 1.9 | 9,131 | Barcelona, Spain | 4.5 | Berlin-Brandenburg, Germany | 6.2 |
| Hamburg, Germany | 1.8 | 2,310 | Milan, Italy | 3.8 | Frankfut Rhine-Main, Germany | 5.9 |
| Warsaw, Poland | 1.7 | 3,258 | Rotterdam–The Hague, Netherlands | 3.3 | Barcelona, Spain | 5.3 |
| Budapest, Hungary | 1,7 | 3,570 | Athens, Greece | 3.2 | Milan, Italy | 4.3 |
| Vienna, Austria | 1.7 | 3,931 | Naples, Italy | 2.9 | Athens, Greece | 3.9 |
In 1957, when the EU was founded, it had no environmental policy or laws.[12] Today, the EU has some of the most progressive environmental policies of any state in the world. Theenvironmental policy of the EU has therefore developed in remarkable fashion in the past four decades. An increasingly dense network of legislation has emerged, which now extends to all areas of environmental protection, including: air pollution control, water protection, waste management, nature conservation, and the control of chemicals, biotechnology and other industrial risks.[13] TheInstitute for European Environmental Policy estimates the body of EUenvironmental law amounts to well over 500 Directives, Regulations and Decisions.[14] Environmental policy has thus become a core area of European politics.
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Such dynamic developments are surprising in light of the legal and institutional conditions which existed in the late 1950s and 60s.[15] Acting without any legislative authority, European policy-makers initially increased the EU's capacity to act by defining environmental policy as a trade problem. The most important reason for the introduction of a common environmental policy was the fear that trade barriers and competitive distortions in the Common Market could emerge due to the different environmental standards.[16] However, in the course of time, EU environmental policy emerged as a formal policy area, with its own procedures. The legal basis of EU environmental policy was not more explicitly established until the introduction of the Single European Act in 1987.[14]
Initially, EU environmental policy was rather introspective. More recently, however, the Union has considered global environmental governance. The role of the EU in securing the ratification and entry into force of theKyoto Protocol in the face of US opposition is an example in this regard. This international dimension is reflected in the EU's Sixth Environmental Action Programme, which recognises that its strategic objectives can only be achieved if a series of key international environmental agreements are actively supported and properly implemented both at an EU level and worldwide. The entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty further strengthens the EU's global environmental leadership ambitions.[17] The vast body of EU environmental law which now exists has played a vital role in improving habitat and species protection in Europe as well as contributed to improvements in air and water quality and waste management.[14] However, significant challenges remain, both to meet existing EU targets and aspirations and to agree new targets and actions that will further improve the environment and the quality of life in Europe and beyond.
One of the top priorities of EU environmental policy iscombating climate change. In 2007, member states agreed that the EU is to use 20%renewable energy in the future and that it has to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 by at least 20% compared to 1990 levels.[18] This includes measures that in 2020, 10% of the overall fuel quantity used by cars and trucks inEU 27 should be running on renewable energy such asbiofuels. This is considered to be one of the most ambitious moves of an important industrialised region to fightclimate change.[19]The EU recently adopted anemissions trading system to incorporatecarbon emissions into the economy.[20]
TheEuropean Green Capital is an annual award that is given to cities that focuses on the environment, energy efficiency and quality of life in urban areas to createsmart city.
