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Where, is the European Union? Obviously here somewhere, but much like the the European
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continent itself, which has an unclear boundary, the European Union also has some fuzzy edges
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to it.
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To start, the official members of the European Union are, in decreasing order of population:
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* Germany * France
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* The United Kingdom * Italy
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* Spain * Poland
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* Romania * The Kingdom of the Netherlands
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* Greece * Belgium
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* Portugal * The Czech Republic
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* Hungary * Sweden
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* Austria * Bulgaria
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* Denmark * Slovakia
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* Finland * Ireland
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* Croatia * Lithuania
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* Latvia * Slovenia
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* Estonia * Cyprus
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* Luxembourg * Malta
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The edges of the EU will probably continue to expand further out as there are other countries
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in various stages of trying to become a member.
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How exactly the European Union works is hideously complicated and a story for another time,
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but for this video you need know only three things:
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1. Countries pay membership dues and
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2. Vote on laws they all must follow and
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3. Citizens of member countries are automatically European Union citizens as well
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This last means that if you're a citizen of any of these countries you are free to live
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and work or retire in any of the others. Which is nice especially if you think your country
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is too big or too small or too hot or too cold. The European Union gives you options.
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By the way, did you notice how all three of these statements have asterisks attached to
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this unhelpful footnote? Well, get used to it: Europe loves asterisks that add exceptions
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to complicated agreements.
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These three, for example, point us toward the first bit of border fuzziness with Norway,
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Iceland and little Liechtenstein. None of which are in the European Union but if you're
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a EU citizen you can live in these countries and Norwegians, Icelanders, or Liechtensteiner(in)s
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can can live in yours.
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Why? In exchange for the freedom of movement of people they have to pay membership fees
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to the European Union -- even though they aren't a part of it and thus don't get a say
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its laws that they still have to follow.
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This arrangement is the European Economic Area and it sounds like a terrible deal, were
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it not for that asterisk which grants EEA but not EU members a pass on some areas of
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law notably farming and fishing -- something a country like Iceland might care quite a
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lot about running their own way.
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Between the European Union and the European Economic Area the continent looks mostly covered,
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with the notable exception of Switzerland who remains neutral and fiercely independent,
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except for her participation in the Schengen Area.
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If you're from a country that keeps her borders extremely clean and / or well-patrolled, the
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Schengen Area is a bit mind-blowing because it's an agreement between countries to take
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a 'meh' approach to borders.
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In the Schengen Area international boundaries look like this: no border officers or passport
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checks of any kind. You can walk from Lisbon to Tallinn without identification or need
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to answer the question: "business or pleasure?".
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For Switzerland being part of Schengen but not part of the European Union means that
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non-swiss can check in any time they like, but they can never stay.
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This koombaya approach to borders isn't appreciated by everyone in the EU: most loudly, the United
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Kingdom and Ireland who argue that islands are different. Thus to get onto these fair
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isles, you'll need a passport and a good reason.
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Britannia's reluctance to get fully involved with the EU brings us to the next topic: money.
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The European Union has its own fancy currency, the Euro used by the majority, but not all
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of the European Union members. This economic union is called the Eurozone and to join a
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country must first reach certain financial goals -- and lying about reaching those goals
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is certainly not something anyone would do.
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Most of the non-Eurozone members when they meet the goals, will ditch their local currency
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in favor of the Euro but three of them Denmark, Sweden and, of course, the United Kingdom,
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have asterisks attracted to the Euro sections of the treaty giving them a permanent out-out.
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And weirdly, four tiny European countries Andorra, San Marino, Monaco & Vatican City
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have an asterisk giving them the reverse: the right print and use Euros as their money,
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despite not being in the European Union at all.
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So that's the big picture: there's the EU, which makes all the rules, the Eurozone inside
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it with a common currency, the European Economic Area outside of it where people can move freely
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and the selective Schengen, for countries who think borders just aren't worth the hassle.
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As you can see, there's some strange overlaps with these borders, but we're not done talking
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about complications by a long shot one again, because empire.
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So Portugal and Spain have islands from their colonial days that they've never parted with:
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these are the Madeira and Canary Islands are off the coast of Africa and the Azores well
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into the Atlantic. Because these islands are Spanish and Portuguese they're part of the
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European Union as well.
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Adding a few islands to the EU's borders isn't a big deal until you consider France: the
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queen of not-letting go. She still holds onto a bunch of islands in the Caribbean, Reunion
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off the coast of Madagascar and French Guiana in South America. As far as France is concerned,
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these are France too, which single handedly extends the edge-to-edge distance of the European
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Union across a third of Earth's circumference.
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Collectively, these bits of France, Spain and Portugal are called the Outermost Regions
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-- and they're the result of the simple answer to empire: just keep it.
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On the other hand, there's the United Kingdom, the master of maintaining complicated relationships
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with her quasi-former lands -- and she's by no means alone in this on such an empire-happy
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continent.
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The Netherlands and Denmark and France (again) all have what the European Union calls Overseas
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Territories: they're not part of the European Union, instead they're a bottomless well of
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asterisks due to their complicated relationships with both with the European Union and their
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associated countries which makes it hard to say anything meaningful about them as a group
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but...
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in general European Union law doesn't apply to these places, though in general the people
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who live there are European Union citizens because in general they have the citizenship
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of their associated country, so in general they can live anywhere in the EU they want
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but in general other European Union citizens can't freely move to these territories.
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Which makes these places a weird, semipermeable membrane of the European Union proper and
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the final part we're going to talk about in detail even though there are still many, more
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one-off asterisks you might stumble upon, such as: the Isle of Man or those Spanish
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Cities in North Africa or Gibraltar, who pretends to be part of Southwest England sometimes,
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or that region in Greece where it's totally legal to ban women, or Saba & friends who
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are part of the Netherlands and so should be part of the EU, but aren't, or the Faeroe
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Islands upon which while citizens of Denmark live they lose their EU citizenship, and on
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and on it goes.
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These asterisks almost never end, but this video must.