Brief introduction about the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Area (EFTA)

Brief introduction about the
European Union (EU)
Unión Europea (UE)
União Européia (UE)
Union Européene (UE)

15 Member States/Países de miembro/Países de membro/Payses du membre

Austria (became member in 1995), Belgium (Founder Member in 1957), Denmark (1973), Finland (1995), France (FM 1957), Germany (FM 1957), Greece (1981), Ireland (1973), Italy (FM 1957), Luxemburg (FM 1957), the Netherlands (FM 1957), Portugal (1986), Spain (1986), Sweden (1995) and United Kingdom (Great Britain)(1973).

10 New Member States (after May 1, 2004)

Estonia (2004), Latvia (2004), Lithuania (2004), Poland (2004), Czech Republic (2004), Slovakia (2004), Hungary (2004), Slovenia (2004), Malta (2004), and Cyprus (2004).

2 New Member States (after January 1, 2007)

Bulgaria (1995) & Rumania (1995).

Candidate States/Países de candidato/Payses du candidat

Turkey (applied for membership in 1987).

CE Marking and EU/EFTA

All EU Member States legally require CE-Marking.

The European Free Trade Association (EFTA*) countries, with the exception of Switzerland, also enforce CE-Marking.

*-Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are EFTA countries.