Special territories of members of the European Economic Area
The special territories of members of the European Economic Area (EEA) are the 32 special territories of EU member states and EFTA member states which, for historical, geographical, or political reasons, enjoy special status within or outside the European Union and the European Free Trade Association.
Angra do Heroísmo, oldest continuously settled town in the archipelago of the Azores and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
French Guiana tropical forest, looking toward Cacao
Bora Bora, in French Polynesia
Willemstad, the capital city of Curaçao.
Member state of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their own sovereignty through the institutions of the European Union in certain aspects of government. State governments must agree unanimously in the Council for the union to adopt some policies; for others, collective decisions are made by qualified majority voting. These obligations and sharing of sovereignty within the EU make it unique among international organisations, as it has established its own legal order which by the provisions of the founding treaties is both legally binding and supreme on all the member states. A founding principle of the union is subsidiarity, meaning that decisions are taken collectively if and only if they cannot realistically be taken individually.
A 2011 'family photo' of the European Council, which comprises the heads of state or government of the member states, along with President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission