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Europe and its politics are inseparably complicated. The map below, created by Reddit user Aeromidd shows some multinational European unions, relations, treaties, agreements, and memberships, presented with each nation sized as a function of its total population.
Europe and some of its relationships
The connection lines on this map don’t mean anything other than joining up pieces of the same union by graph proximity. Look at the “connections” of EFTA (purple); for example, there is nothing that connects Switzerland, Norway, Lichtenstein, and Iceland together other than being members of EFTA.
The European Union is a geo-political entity encircling a large part of the European continent. It covers over 4.2 million km² (1.6 million mi²) and has 447.7 million residents (5.8% of the world population).
A single internal market has been established through a standardized system of regulations and laws used in all member countries. The European Union policies aim to provide the unrestricted movement of people, goods, services, and money within the inner market.
A monetary union merged 19 member countries that use the euro currency. Passport controls have been canceled for travels in the Schengen Area.
The Schengen agreement remains one of the world’s most extensive areas that have ended boundary control among member countries. It comprises 26 European countries that have canceled all border control types at their joint borders.
Of these 26 countries, 22 are members of the European Union. Five members of the European Union are not part of the Schengen Area (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, and Romania). These countries, except Ireland, will join the Schengen area in the future; Ireland maintains an opt-out and instead operates its visa policy. Four European nations that are not members of the European Union (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) signed accords associated with the Schengen Agreement.
Three microstates Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican City, sustain open borders for traffic with their neighbors because of the functional impossibility of crossing them without traveling through at least one Schengen member country and are therefore assumed de facto members of the Schengen Area.
EU Customs Union is a customs union that consists of all members of the European Union, Monaco, and the sovereign British base areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. Moreover, the United Union is in customs unions with Andorra, San Marino, and Turkey (except for certain goods).
Here is another way to show the European relationship by overlapping Schengen, the European Union, and Eurozone.
But there are other, less well-known political alliances between European countries.
Political alliances in Europe without European Union
The Baltic Assembly is an association that encourages intergovernmental collaboration between Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania).
The Benelux is a politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental and cultural cooperation of three bordering countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
GUAM is a regional organization for the Democracy and Economic Development of 4 post-Soviet countries: Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova.
The Nordic Council is the authorized body for formal inter-parliamentary Nordic collaboration among the Nordic nations. It has 87 delegates from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden and the autonomous areas of the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the Åland Islands.
The Visegrád Groupis the political, military, economic, and cultural cooperation of 4 nations of Central Europe: Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia).
The Union State is an organization consisting of Russia and Belarus. The Union State was initially aimed at politically and economically uniting both nations.
