"work in sensitive fields, such as government, police, military where citizenship is often required). Non-citizens may not have the same rights to welfare and unemployment benefits like citizens. Passports of the EFTA member states Passports issued by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) member states Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, can be used by citizens to exercise the right of free movement within EFTA and the European Economic Area (EEA), which consists of Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in addition to the member states of the European Union. Instead of being part of the EEA, Switzerland has a series of bilateral"
"may apply to join the EU. Whether a country is European or not is subject to political assessment by the EU institutions. Past enlargement has brought membership to twenty-eight members since the foundation of the European Union (EU) as the European Economic Community by the Inner Six states in 1958. The three major western European countries that are not EU members, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, have all submitted membership applications in the past, but subsequently froze them. They do however, along with Liechtenstein, participate in the EU Single Market as well as the Schengen Area, which makes them closely aligned"
"B), Portugal (1984–2014, List B), United Kingdom (1985–2012, List B), the United States (1985–96, List B), Belgium (1981–2015), Denmark (1985-2016, List B) and Greece (1985-2016, List B). Slovakia denounced the convention in December 2016 and will cease to be a UNIDO member on 31 December 2017. The Holy See and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta have observer status with UNIDO. Other UN member states that have not signed, ratified, or denounced the constitution are Andorra, Brunei, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, San Marino, Singapore, Solomon Islands, and South Sudan. The policy-making organs (or governing bodies) of UNIDO"
"Portugal, Italy, Austria, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Liechtenstein. Among the current participants, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland are not members of the European Union. Although Ireland and the United Kingdom have not signed the Schengen Agreement Application Convention, they take part in Schengen co-operation under the terms of the Treaty of Amsterdam, which introduced the provisions of Schengen ""acquis"" into European Union law. Schengen ""acquis"" allows the United Kingdom and Ireland to take part in all or part of the Schengen convention arrangements. Ireland and"
"2016, the Convention has 183 parties, including 182 states and the European Union. The CITES Convention includes provisions and rules for trade with non-Parties. All member states of the United Nations are party to the treaty, with the exception of Andorra, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Federated States of Micronesia, Haiti, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, South Sudan, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Turkmenistan, and Tuvalu. UN observer the Holy See is also not a member. The Faroe Islands, an autonomous country in the Kingdom of Denmark, is also treated as a non-Party to CITES (both the Danish mainland and Greenland are part of"
"as the European Communities were the Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. The Communities and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The latest major amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the United Kingdom signified the intention to leave after a membership referendum in June 2016 and is negotiating its withdrawal on 29 March"
"(February 2009); Costa Rica, Mauritius, Morocco and Peru (March 2009); the Dominican Republic (November 2009); Senegal (February 2011); Argentina and Cabo Verde (March 2011); Panama (July 2013); Côte d'Ivoire, Kazakhstan and Tunisia (January 2015); the People’s Republic of China (July 2015); Ghana and Uruguay (October 2015); and Paraguay (March 2017). The European Union also takes part in the work of the Governing Board. ""Participating OECD members:"" Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom."" ""Participating non-OECD members:"""
"states as of 2016: 28 EU member states, as well as three of the four member states of the EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). The Agreement is applied provisionally with respect to Croatia—the remaining and most recent EU member state—pending ratification of its accession by all EEA parties. One EFTA member, Switzerland, has not joined the EEA, but has a series of bilateral agreements with the EU which allow it also to participate in the internal market. In the late 1980s, the EFTA member states, led by Sweden, began looking at options to join the then-European Communities. The reasons identified"
"thus essentially preventing it from participating in Government. The European Union (EU) is an association of twenty-eight sovereign member states, that by treaty have delegated certain of their competences to common institutions, in order to coordinate their policies in a number of areas, without however constituting a new state on top of the member states. Officially established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community. Thus, 12 states are founding members, namely, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In 1995, Austria, Finland"
"the European Council and included as participants without any caveats the Eurozone member states as well as Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The EU members which did not participate are Czech Republic, Hungary, Sweden and the United Kingdom, all for different reasons. Croatia subsequently acceded to the EU in July 2013. The pact did not set up any structures or agreement for an independent monitoring of reform progress among its participating members. However, as a third party independent initiative aimed to keep institutional investors informed, the annual ""Euro Plus Monitor report"" conducts a comparative competitiveness ranking for all"
"which only Norway and Switzerland are founding members). Three of the EFTA countries are part of the European Union Internal Market through the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), which took effect in 1994; the fourth, Switzerland, opted to conclude bilateral agreements with the EU. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OCSE) is the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organisation. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, human rights, freedom of the press, and fair elections. The OSCE is an ad hoc organisation under the United Nations Charter (Chap. VIII). The EU is not strictly speaking a"
"through geography, history and opt-outs and polls have found that, of the 28 nationalities in the European Union, British people feel the least European. On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union and withdrawal negotiations are currently under way after the invocation of article 50 of the Lisbon treaty in March 2017. The United Kingdom is a member of the following international organisations: ADB (nonregional member), AfDB (nonregional member), Arctic Council (observer), Australia Group, BIS, Commonwealth of Nations, CBSS (observer), CDB, Council of Europe, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, ESA, European Union, FAO, FATF, G-20, G-5,"
"Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom. Croatia, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, and Turkey joined in 2001. In 2003, Albania, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Holy See (a Council of Europe permanent observer), Macedonia, Russia, and Serbia signed the convention. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine followed in 2005. Montenegro joined in 2007. Finally, Kazakhstan (not a member of the Council of Europe) joined in 2010. This makes a total of 47 member states. Monaco and"
"Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Greece, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine. Council of Europe non-members party to EUR-OPA are Algeria, Lebanon and Morocco. Participatin international organisations include the European Union, the World Health Organization, UNOCHA, UNESCO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Monaco joined the Agreement before they joined the Council of Europe. Italy was a member of the Agreement from 1987 to 2002. Israel was also a member until 1996. The Agreement organises a ministerial session every two or three"
"the European Union (EU). There are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, when the ""CIS Charter"" (, ""Ustav"") was adopted. The charter formalised the concept of membership: a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter (sec. 2, art. 7). Parties to CIS Creation Agreement but not the Charter are considered to be ""Founding States"" but not a full members. Turkmenistan has not ratified the Charter and therefore is not formally a member of CIS. Nevertheless, it has"
"the European Union, with the UK creating the Single Market; however, gradually Germany broke away from the free-market origins of the Common Market with Britain becoming increasingly disquieted as Berlin and Paris called for ever closer political integration. Following political policies such as a shared currency (the UK never adopted the euro) Britain slowly withdrew and Germany became one of the EU's more dominant nations and then finally, in a referendum held in 2016, the UK voted to withdraw from the European Union after 43 years of membership. The United Kingdom will be the first country to ever leave the"
"is the only overseas territory that is part of the European Union (EU), although it is not part of the European Customs Union, the European Tax Policy, the European Statistics Zone or the Common Agriculture Policy. Gibraltar is not a member of the European Union in its own right. The Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus are not part of the European Union, but they are the only British overseas territory to use the euro as official currency. None of the other Overseas Territories are members of the EU, the main body of EU law does not apply and, although certain"
"F. Houngbo, who was elected for a first four-year term in 2017. As of February 2015, IFAD has 176 member states. This includes 174 UN members states along with the Cook Islands and Niue. The other UN member states that are not IFAD member states are Andorra, Australia (which joined in 1977 but subsequently denounced the agreement), Bahrain, Belarus, Brunei, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Monaco, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkmenistan, and Ukraine. The observers are the Holy See and European Union. The prices of basic food commodities increased rapidly during the 2007–08 world food price"
"Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela and Viet Nam New Zealand applied to join in June 2016. The following non-UN organizations have permanent observer status with the Committee: United"
"(25), and Austria (28) are included only as part of the EU, and not independently. Spain (14) is a permanent guest invitee. When the countries' GDP is measured at purchasing power parity (PPP) rates, all 19 members are among the top 29 in the world for the year of 2014, according to the IMF. Iran (18), Taiwan (20), Nigeria (21), Thailand (22), Egypt (25), Pakistan (26), Malaysia (28), and Bangladesh (31) are not G20 members, while Spain (16), Poland (23) and the Netherlands (27) are only included by virtue of being EU members. However, in a list of average GDP,"
"dependencies of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey are integral parts of the EU's customs territory. Andorra, San Marino and Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, are each in a customs union with the EU. While all EU member states are part of the customs union, not all of their respective territories participate. Territories of member states which have remained outside of the EU (overseas territories of the European Union) generally do not participate in the customs union. However, there are seven EU member territories that do not participate in the customs union: The following are"
"established a parliament, court and central bank and introduced the euro as a unified currency. Between 2004 and 2013, more Central and Eastern European countries began joining, expanding the EU to its current size of 28 European countries, and once more making Europe a major economical and political centre of power. However, in June 2016 the people of the United Kingdom, in a non-binding referendum on EU membership voted to leave the European Union. Europe makes up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass. It has a higher ratio of coast to landmass than any other continent or subcontinent. Its"
"A 2016 UK referendum voted to withdraw from the European Union. Staying in the EEA, possibly eventually as an EFTA member, is one of the suggested options. A 2013 research paper presented to the Parliament of the United Kingdom proposed a number of alternatives to EU membership which would continue to allow it access to the EU's internal market, including continuing EEA membership as an EFTA member state, or the Swiss model of a number of bilateral treaties covering the provisions of the single market. The United Kingdom was a co-founder of EFTA in 1960, but ceased to be a"
"1992: Associate membership was created to include the European countries that were members of NATO but not of the European Union. Associate members Poland, the Czech Republic & Hungary joined the EU in 2004. Kirchberg – 1994: Countries that at the time were not part of either NATO or of the EU. All of the following nations joined both NATO and the EU by 2007. The following missions, mainly in the Balkans, were deployed by the WEU: This leaflet outlines the WEU's cultural and social (non-military) structures and activities before they were transferred to the Council of Europe in 1960."
"United Kingdom and the euro The United Kingdom has never sought to adopt the euro as its official currency for the duration of its membership of the European Union (EU), and secured an opt-out at the euro's creation via the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Polls have shown that the majority of British people have been against adopting the euro, and in a June 2016 referendum the UK voted to withdraw from the EU which would virtually eliminate the chance of any future adoption. Despite never being a member of the euro, the currency is used in the UK's Cypriot territories"
"and with the United Kingdom as a successor to England, it is still in place today. Other goals have also been constant such as the political stability of the Iberian peninsula and the affirmation of Portuguese interests in Europe and the Atlantic (also in the Indian and Pacific Oceans throughout different moments in history). Portugal was a founding member of NATO (1949), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (1961), and European Free Trade Area (1960); it left the latter in 1986 to join the European Economic Community, which would become the European Union (EU) in 1993. In 1996, it co-founded"
"of Europe member state has signed and ratified Protocol 6, except Russia, which has signed but not ratified. Despite having signed the protocol more than thirty years ago Germany and the Netherlands have never ratified it. Turkey, which signed the protocol in 1985, ratified it in 2016, becoming the latest member state to do so. The United Kingdom has neither signed nor ratified the protocol. Applies the current expansive and indefinite grounds of prohibited discrimination in Article 14 to the exercise of any legal right and to the actions (including the obligations) of public authorities. The Protocol entered into force"
"2011 two new treaties, the European Fiscal Compact and European Stability Mechanism were signed among Eurozone countries. In 2013, Croatia entered the EU. However a further crisis was triggered after the UK's Conservative government chose to hold a referendum in 2016, and campaigners for ""leave"" (or ""Brexit"") won 51.89 per cent of votes on a 72.2 per cent turnout. Although the European Union does not have a codified constitution, like every political body it has laws which ""constitute"" its basic governance structure. The EU's primary constitutional sources are the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of"
"referendum in 2006 and they do not relish the idea of becoming part of the Russian Federation."" Since 2015, focus on developing relations between former members of the Soviet Union is on continued development of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), itself a further development of the Eurasian Customs Union established in 2010. It is modeled on the integration of the European Union and comprises 5 member states: Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. Tajikistan has also expressed an interest in joining. However, the EAEU is only an economic union, and at present, political integration remains within the remit of the"
"this day after referendums on membership in 1972 and 1994, although it is a signatory of the Schengen treaty and a member of the European Economic Area. None of the Scandinavian countries (except Finland) have joined the Euro, membership being rejected by referendum in both Denmark and Sweden. Denmark voted no to the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, but reversed the decision after negotiating opt-outs. History of Scandinavia The history of Scandinavia is the history of the geographical region of Scandinavia and its peoples. The region is in northern Europe, and consists of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Finland and Iceland are"
"Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland were the only EU members which, prior to the 2004 enlargement, had not signed the Schengen Agreement. Both countries maintain a Common Travel Area with passport-free travel for their citizens between them and the three British Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, that are outside the European Union. Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory and is neither part of the Schengen Area nor the Common Travel Area. The UK declined to sign up to the Schengen Agreement, one argument being that, for an island nation,"
"the UK met 1 of 5 of the criteria. United Kingdom and the euro The United Kingdom has never sought to adopt the euro as its official currency for the duration of its membership of the European Union (EU), and secured an opt-out at the euro's creation via the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. Polls have shown that the majority of British people have been against adopting the euro, and in a June 2016 referendum the UK voted to withdraw from the EU which would virtually eliminate the chance of any future adoption. Despite never being a member of the euro,"
"Austria and Finland (which had joined EFTA in 1986) in 1995, leaving only Norway and Switzerland as the remaining members of the original outer seven, although EFTA had gained two new members (Iceland and Liechtenstein) in the intervening time. On the other hand, membership of the Communities, now the European Union (EU), has reached 28. Today, there are still some groups within the European Union integrating faster than others, for example; the eurozone and Schengen Area (see: Opt-outs in the European Union). The Treaty of Lisbon includes provisions for a group of countries to integrate without the inclusions of others"