The EU has achieved great things for its citizens and the world:
- freedom for its citizens to live, study or work anywhere in the EU
- prosperity thanks to the world’s biggest single market and a common currency
- growth thanks to the world’s largest trade bloc
- protection of citizens’ fundamental, digital, social, economic and other rights
- border-free travel thanks to the Schengen area
- pioneer in fighting climate change, protecting the environment and securing sustainable energy
- protection of citizens’ health from local and global health threats and by ensuring food safety
- support and solidarity in times of need due to natural disasters, economic crises, or a pandemic
- peace in the EU and stability for over 70 years
- expansion and unity thanks to the EU's enlargement
- aid and development assistance for millions of people worldwide.
Single market
The EU brings prosperity thanks to its main economic engine, the single market. It enables goods, services, money and people to move freely throughout most of the continent without technical, legal and bureaucratic barriers. This makes it easier for companies to do business and helps consumers save money.
Benefits for people
It has become easy to move around Europe – all EU citizens have the right to live, study, work or retire in any EU country.
As an EU national, for employment, social security and tax purposes, every EU country is required to treat you exactly the same as its own citizens.
Here are some examples of achievements made possible by the single market:
- Consumer benefits: One of the biggest benefits of the single market is lower prices and greater choice. Since there are no tariffs or trade barriers between EU countries, businesses can sell their products and services across borders without extra costs, leading to more competitive pricing. Additionally, consumer protection laws ensure that citizens enjoy the same rights across the EU, including 14-day return policies for online purchases and guarantees on faulty goods. Fair pricing rules prevent price discrimination, ensuring that people in one country do not pay unfairly higher prices than those in another
- Telephone and digital services: You can use your phone and online services at no extra cost across the EU, thanks to the end of roaming rules
- Common charger: New rules ensure that you can charge your mobile phone and other electronic devices using only one type of charger. This is both more convenient for you and helps to reduce e-waste
- Energy efficiency of products: Thanks to EU energy labels, you can see how much energy and water an appliance uses. Ecodesign rules also ensure that household products like fridges and washing machines are becoming more energy efficient, helping to save energy and money.
Benefits for businesses
The single market helps companies, especially small businesses, attract investment so they can grow across the EU and worldwide. It also protects companies from possible shocks to their supply chains, by making it easier for them to find new suppliers and partners. In this way, the single market helped countries come together in solidarity and overcome difficulties like the COVID-19 pandemic. It enabled European countries to deliver life-saving vaccines, launch a transnational recovery plan and lead the global response to the pandemic.
The EU works on boosting the competitiveness of businesses, in particular small and medium-sized businesses, and ensuring they digitise and decarbonise. It is developing effective EU standards and advancing international financial and non-financial reporting and auditing standards.
The EU make sure that you are protected against the downsides of globalisation through:
- EU support for small businesses
- rules to make sure big companies pay their fair share of tax
The EU can also help if you have been treated unfairly as a business owner.
Funding and innovation
Underpinning economic growth is the EU’s commitment to support home-grown innovation. The EU is investing in research and innovation through its Horizon Europe programme. More than 30 EU researchers funded through this programme have won Nobel Prizes.
One of the most significant EU achievements in innovation has been the launch of Galileo, Europe’s very own global navigation satellite system. Galileo has been helping you find your location on your smartphone since 2016. It currently provides navigation and timing information to over 4 billion users worldwide. Galileo also supports the daily operations of a wide range of industries such as transport, logistics, telecommunications and energy.
The EU also offers plenty of funding opportunities to help support your business. If you are working in the agricultural sector, the common agricultural policy has set up several schemes to help you expand your company. There are also EU funds available specifically for those working in fisheries, climate action, innovation, energy, transport and ICT looking to expand their companies across national borders.
Common currency
Launched in 1999, the euro is now the official currency of 20 EU countries, used by nearly 350 million people. It has advanced European integration and strengthened the single market by eliminating the risk of currency fluctuation and exchange costs – to the benefit of us all.
Trade
The EU is the largest trade bloc in the world. It is the world's biggest exporter of manufactured goods and services, and the biggest import market for over 100 countries.
Free trade among its members was one of the EU's founding principles. This is possible thanks to the single market. Beyond its borders, the EU is also committed to liberalising world trade.
The EU has achieved a strong position thanks to its members acting together with one voice on the global stage, rather than with separate trade strategies. It is one of the largest global players in international trade, accounting for around 14% of the world’s trade in goods. The EU has 74 individual free trade agreements with countries and regions all over the globe. It also continues to remove trade barriers to EU exports across the globe.
At the same time, the EU customs union makes it easier for EU companies to trade, aligns customs duties on goods from outside the EU and helps to protect you, animals and the environment. Thanks to this Union, custom authorities of all EU countries work together as if they were one. They apply the same tariffs to goods imported into their territory from the rest of the world and apply no tariffs internally.
Border-free travel
Thanks to the EU’s establishment of the border-free Schengen area, more than 425 million EU citizens enjoy free movement along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU.
The Schengen area encompasses most EU countries, except for Cyprus and Ireland. Certain non-EU countries such as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein have also joined. All residents from participating countries can move around this area without being subject to border checks.
Protection of rights and democracy
EU citizens enjoy many freedoms and protections, including personal, civil, political, economic and social rights, personal data protection, anti-discrimination laws, and borderless travel through most EU countries.
All EU citizens have the right to actively take part in the political life of the EU. Every adult EU citizen has the right to stand as a candidate and elect their representatives in the European Parliament, the world’s only directly elected transnational assembly.
Besides elections, you can contribute to EU policies by taking part in European Citizens’ Panels. Through these panels, you can take part in the democratic process with other people from all EU countries to discuss key, upcoming proposals that affect us all.
Every EU citizen enjoys the same fundamental rights based on the values of equality, non-discrimination, inclusion, human dignity, freedom and democracy. These values are fortified and protected by the rule of law, spelled out in the EU Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
EU citizens have the right to live, work, study and get married in other EU countries. The EU works to keep your personal data safe and empower you, the consumer, worker, citizen. Learn more about your rights below.
Employment: Every EU worker enjoys certain minimum rights relating to:
- health and safety at work;
- equal opportunities;
- protection against all forms of discrimination.
In the EU, the maximum number of hours that someone can work in any 7-day period is 48 hours. The minimum period of paid leave guaranteed for each worker per year is 4 weeks.
- Data protection: The EU has taken a strong stance to protect individual rights and personal information to ensure we all have more control over our personal data and have the right to have our data erased. EU data protection rules also guarantee your personal data are protected whenever they are collected – for example, when you buy something online, apply for a job, or request a bank loan. These rules apply to both companies and organisations (public and private) based in the EU and outside the EU who offer goods or services in the EU.
- Travel and payments: Under EU rules, you will get your money back if you return unwanted products and will receive a refund if you experience any avoidable delays or cancellations while travelling. You are also no longer charged any additional fees if you make a credit or debit card purchase in the EU. Instant payments introduced by the EU mean that funds are available in a payee's account within 10 seconds of a payment order being made.
- Product safety: You are protected against dangerous products through the EU’s own rapid alert system for dangerous non-food products, such as toys, car seats and perfumes. The system enables information on measures taken against dangerous products to be circulated quickly among the national authorities responsible for product safety in the single market countries. A similar alert system exists for food items that do not fulfil health and safety requirements.
- Agricultural products: Protecting health is the aim of all EU laws and standards in the farming and food sectors. Extensive EU-wide laws cover the entire food production and processing chain within the EU, as well as imported and exported goods.
- Health insurance: Through your national insurance provider, you can obtain a free European health insurance card. This gives you access to unplanned medically necessary, state-provided healthcare during a temporary stay in any EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom under the same conditions and at the same cost (free in some countries) as people insured in that country.
- Digital rights: EU laws ensure that large digital platforms are kept in check and cannot create bottlenecks in the digital economy due to their position. They also increase your rights, particularly on social media platforms, to:
- challenge content moderation decisions
- increase transparency requirements for online platforms
- ensure obligations for protecting minors are met
- set new limits on targeted advertising.
Climate, energy and environment
Fighting climate change
On its way to becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050, the EU is a trailblazer in fighting climate change and greening its economy. In keeping with its pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement, where governments jointly agreed on a major collective effort to limit global warming and address its impacts, the EU has committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. This target has been enshrined into law.
The EU is also partnering with developing countries to support them in mitigating and adapting to climate change. The EU, its Member States and the European Investment Bank are together the biggest contributor of public climate finance to developing economies.
Powering Europe
The EU has withstood critical risks to its security of energy supply, regained control over the energy market and prices, and accelerated the transition towards climate neutrality.
For consumers, electricity and gas prices have fallen drastically compared to the peaks in 2022 thanks to measures taken at EU level. New energy market legislation means that the most vulnerable are also better protected from disconnection.
Thanks to EU measures on energy, half of the EU's electricity generation now comes from renewable sources. Wind power has overtaken gas to become the EU's second largest source of electricity behind nuclear energy.
Protecting nature
The EU has developed some of the strictest environmental standards in the world. EU policy seeks to minimise risks to the climate, health and biodiversity.
A main driver of climate change and biodiversity loss is deforestation. This is just one environmental issue, among many, which involved the EU taking action to protect our land.
The EU established Natura 2000, which is the largest coordinated network of protected areas in the world. Nearly 20% of EU land is part of the Natura 2000 network, which allows nature and biodiversity to thrive.
The EU is also tackling the 10 single-use plastic items most commonly found on Europe’s beaches, and promoting sustainable alternatives. Besides, the EU is bringing down the number of premature deaths caused by air pollution and improving water quality by reducing waste litter and microplastics.
Many chemicals have hazardous properties which can harm the environment and human health. The EU has put in place around 40 laws that regulate chemicals, thereby protecting human health and reducing pollution from chemicals.
Health
When the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU helped to research and roll out life-saving vaccines in record time. Over 80% of the EU adult population received at least the first vaccination course. The EU also led the way by introducing the EU Digital COVID Certificate which helped citizens from 78 countries and territories to travel safely. The system was taken up by the World Health Organization to establish a global system to enable travel and protect people across the world from ongoing and future health threats.
The European Health Union emerged to help EU countries prepare and respond together to health crises in the future. The EU is making sure that medical supplies are available and affordable, and that EU countries work together to improve prevention, treatment and aftercare for all sorts of diseases, including cancer.
The pandemic also placed additional pressures on people’s mental health, especially among young people and those with pre-existing mental health conditions. To tackle the mental health crisis, the EU introduced 20 flagship mental healthcare initiatives to ensure:
- adequate and effective prevention
- access to high quality and affordable mental healthcare and treatment
- reintegration into society after recovery.
Solidarity in times of crisis
In the event of a major natural or man-made disaster, the EU can coordinate the delivery of government aid from around the EU to the affected area. Once the Civil Protection Mechanism is activated by a disaster-hit country, the EU calls on all the 37 participating countries to assist. The aid delivered can vary from medical supplies and shelter items, to specialised teams such as firefighters or search and rescue teams.
It has so far channelled support to all parts of the continent and beyond; from clearing the rubble just hours after deadly earthquakes ravaged Albania, Croatia and Türkiye, to helping Greece, Italy, Spain and Canada when they were hit by forest fires or flash floods in recent years.
The emergency assistance to Ukrainians has so far been largest ever operation under the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Enlargement of the EU
Since being founded in 1951, the EU has expanded from 6 to 27 countries, unifying much of the continent.
This means that 450 million Europeans now enjoy freedom of movement across a larger area and have stronger rights and freedoms. Democracy and the rule of law have been strengthened, despite being tested at times. Opportunities for both people and businesses have grown.
The enlargement process has also become a powerful stimulus for democratic and economic reforms in those countries that want to become future EU members.
Peace and stability in the EU
The EU has delivered over half a century of peace, stability and prosperity in the EU. In 2012, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its achievement of over 70 years of lasting peace.
But recently, war has returned to Europe. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been an attack not just against Ukraine, but against freedom, self-determination and democracy. The EU has stood by Ukraine every step of the way, and it will continue to support it as long as it takes.
The EU also promotes peace, prosperity, democracy, fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law across the globe. It works to resolve conflicts and promotes rules-based international order.
International aid and diplomacy
EU countries acting in unison have a stronger voice on the world stage than 27 nations of varying size acting separately. Taken together, the EU institutions and national governments are the world’s leading donor of development assistance and work collectively to promote good governance, fight hunger and preserve natural resources.
World’s biggest aid donor
The EU provides assistance to countries and populations, both within Europe and abroad, when major disasters or humanitarian emergencies strike. It is collectively the biggest donor for international aid in the world, providing over €50 billion a year to help overcome poverty and advance global development.
Every year the EU provides food, shelter, protection, healthcare and clean water to millions of victims of disasters and conflict in over 110 countries, including through air bridge flights.
Migration
Managing migration and asylum has become one of the most pressing concerns of Europeans in recent years. The EU launched a new common system in 2024 to manage migration in a dignified and sustainable way. The system lays downs rules so that no one EU country is left alone in managing migration and that all countries apply fair, efficient procedures and manage EU external borders in full respect of fundamental rights.
Diplomacy and security
The EU uses several tools such as diplomacy, sanctions and aid to support stability and conflict resolution in some of most unstable regions of the world. For example, the EU imposed massive and unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia to reduce its ability to finance the war.
Promoting human rights
The EU is based on a strong commitment to promote and protect human rights. It defends civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and freedoms and promotes non-discrimination and equal treatment.
It opposes all forms of torture, the death penalty, and human trafficking. It also provides support to improve respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in countries and regions where they are most at risk.