European Union
The European Union is a political and economic union: single market, fiscal rules, shared institutions, and a macro history shaped by integration and crisis response.
What it is
Single-market and institutional union
The European Union is a political and economic union: single market, fiscal rules, shared institutions, and a macro history shaped by integration and crisis response.
Economic history
The EU macro story is the move from trade integration toward deeper institutional integration: single market, enlargement, fiscal rules, euro adoption for many members, and shared recovery funding.
It is best read as both an economy and a governance system, where country-level shocks interact with common rules, common funds, and uneven monetary membership.
Policy questions
Sources and references
Founding documents, statistical handbooks, and methodology releases that anchor the institutional history above.
Institution sources
European Union · 1992
Founding treaty of the European Union. Defines single-market and economic-union institutions.
- PrimaryStability and Growth Pact
European Commission
Reference text for EU fiscal rules: deficit and debt thresholds, excessive-deficit procedure.
- PrimaryEurostat
European Union Statistical Office
European Commission
European Semester economic-governance cycle reference document.