The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) is the chief co-ordinator and representative of the
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) within the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...
(EU). The position is currently held by
Josep Borrell Fontelles
Josep Borrell Fontelles (; born 24 April 1947) is a Spanish politician serving as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 1 December 2019. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), he served ...
.
The
Treaty of Amsterdam had established the position of High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy. The position was aggrandised by the
Lisbon Treaty, which established its current title and powers, including a seat on the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
, and a chair of the
council of EU foreign ministers. The first person to hold the full title of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, following the Lisbon Treaty, was
Catherine Ashton. Following the
Lisbon Treaty, the post is assisted by the
European External Action Service (EEAS) that was set up in December 2010.
[Gateway to the European Union]
European External Axis Service
– accessed 16 February 2011
Titles
The formal title of the High Representative is "High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy". This post was previously styled as High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and, under the
European Constitution, had been designated to be titled the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs. This latter title, as EU Foreign Minister is still applied by commentators and sections of the media as a publicly recognisable shorthand for the post. The style High Representative equates to that of
High Commissioner in diplomatic circles. Since the High Representative is ex officio a Vice-President of the European Commission, the office-holder is sometimes referred to as the HR/VP.
Role
Where foreign matters are agreed between
EU member states, the High Representative can speak for the EU in that area, such as negotiating on behalf of the member states. The Representative co-ordinates the work of the
European Union Special Representatives as well as other appointments such as anti-terrorist co-ordinator.
Beside representing the EU at international fora and co-ordinating the
Common Foreign and Security Policy and the
Common Security and Defence Policy, the High Representative is:
* ''
ex-officio''
Vice-President of the European Commission
* participant in the meetings of the
European Council
* responsible of the European Union Special Representatives
* head of the
External Action Service and the
delegations
* President of the
Foreign Affairs Council
*
Secretary-general
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the
Western European Union (prior to the abolition of the WEU on 30 June 2011)
* Head of the
European Defence Agency
* Chairperson of the board of the
European Union Institute for Security Studies
According to proposals made in 2009 by the Swedish EU presidency, the High Representative will control the staffing and budget of the
EEAS, and propose the size of budget to be allocated. The High Representative is responsible for appointing EEAS staff and for controlling general foreign policy (outside of trade, development and enlargement which has to be made together with the Commission) including security initiatives and intelligence sharing. However, although the High Representative may prepare initiatives, decisions will still have to be taken by the member states in Council. The High Representative would also have to report to Parliament.
[Rettman, Andrew (23 October 2009]
EU states envisage new foreign policy giant
EU Observer
While there has been some criticism of the vague division of powers between the EU's top players, Ukrainian ambassador to the EU Andriy Veselovsky praised the framework and clarified it in his own terms: The
President of the European Commission speaks as the EU's "government" while the
President of the European Council is a "strategist". The High Representative specialises in "bilateral relations" while the
European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy deals in technical matters such as the free trade agreement with Ukraine (here, Veselovsky makes a mistake, as
FTAs are actually part of the
EU's common commercial policy for which the
European Commissioner for Trade is responsible). The
President of the European Parliament meanwhile articulates the EU's values.
With the growth in role of the High Representative, and their exclusion from the European Council, the national foreign ministers are now uncertain of their role vs the High Representative. At an informal meeting in Finland it was mooted that they could serve as special envoys on the High Representative's behalf. This has been backed by Ashton who said that so long as the EU spoke with one voice, it didn't matter who was speaking.
History
The post was introduced under the
Treaty of Amsterdam. The Treaty stated that the Secretary-General of the
Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...
should have "the function of the High Representative for the common foreign and security policy." Thus,
Javier Solana became the first permanent High Representative. Initially the post was much more limited in scope than the present one created in 2009 by the
Lisbon Treaty.
Lisbon Treaty
The
European Constitution proposed to merge the
European Commissioner for External Relations with the High Representative to create a ''Union Minister for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy''. Although the Constitution failed to be ratified, its replacement, the
Treaty of Lisbon, retained the change under a different name. The new ''High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy'' would still merge the External Relations Commissioner with the High Representative and, like the Constitution, would have it backed up by an
External Action Service.
[Honor Mahony: ]
EU leaders scrape treaty deal at 11th hour
', EU Observer, 23 June 2007 The new role also took over other foreign affairs roles, such as chairing the
Foreign Affairs Council and representing the EU in international fora, roles which were previously exercised by the foreign minister of the country holding the
presidency of the European Union
The official title President of the European Union (or President of Europe) does not exist, but there are a number of presidents of European Union institutions, including:
* the President of the European Council (since 1 December 2019, Charles ...
(along with the foreign minister of the country previously holding the presidency and the one to take it next).
Despite the name change, many parts of the media still referred to it as a foreign minister and in negotiations it was decided that the High Representative would no long also be the
Council's Secretary-General but would be a
Vice-President of the European Commission, filling the now merged Commission post.
The merger of the two posts has been seen as furthering the answer to Kissinger's question:
Appointments
The High Representative is appointed by the
European Council acting by qualified majority. However to take up their role in the Commission, in particular as a vice-president, the High Representative has to appear before Parliament for questioning and then be subject to Parliament's vote of approval on the proposed Commission.
The basic monthly salary of the High Representative is fixed at 130%
[Council Decision of 1 December 2009 laying down the conditions of employment of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy](_blank)
EurLex (higher than a vice-president but less than the Commission President) of the highest grade of the
EU civil service (grade 16, step 3),
[Base salary of grade 16, third step is €17,697.68]
European Commission: Officials' salaries
– accessed 19 March 2010[REGULATION No 422/67/EEC, 5/67/EURATOM OF THE COUNCIL](_blank)
EurLex which works out at €23,006.98. There are other allowances on top of that as all other conditions of employment for the High Representative are aligned to that of the Commission.
Javier Solana Madariaga (1999–2009)
The
Amsterdam Treaty
The Treaty of Amsterdam, officially the Treaty of Amsterdam amending the Treaty on European Union, the Treaties establishing the European Communities and certain related acts, was signed on 2 October 1997, and entered into force on 1 May 1999; i ...
introduced the post of ''High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy'' to represent the EU on the world stage. It was decided that the
Secretary-General of the Council
The Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union heads the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. In April 2015, the Council appointed the Danish diplomat Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen as Secretary-General of the Council fo ...
would be the High Representative. This meant that the Secretary-General at the time,
Jürgen Trumpf
Jürgen Trumpf (born 8 July 1931, Düsseldorf) was appointed Secretary-General for the Council of the European Union and held the office from 1 September 1994 to 17 October 1999.
When the Amsterdam Treaty came into force, he briefly became the f ...
, was the first High Representative, although he only served for a few months.
The first permanent High Representative was
Javier Solana Madariaga, former
Secretary General of NATO. He was appointed on 4 July 1999 at the
Cologne European Council as Council Secretary-General and High Representative. He took up the post on 18 October 1999, shortly after standing down from NATO. The post had a budget of €40 million, most of which goes to Balkan operations. During his tenure, the position was expanded rapidly, with several more functions combined into the function of High Representative. From 25 November 1999 he was also appointed Secretary-General of the
Western European Union (WEU), overseeing the transfer of responsibilities from that organisation to the
Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In 2004, his five-year mandate was renewed; he also became president of the
European Defence Agency for the duration of his second term.
The
Clinton administration claimed in May 2000 that Solana was the fulfilment of
Henry Kissinger
Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...
's famous desire to have a phone number to talk to Europe. In December 2003 Solana released the
European Security Strategy
The European Security Strategy is the document in which the European Union clarifies its security strategy which is aimed at achieving a secure Europe in a better world, identifying the threats facing the Union, defining its strategic objectives ...
, which sets out the main priorities and identifies the main threats to the security of the EU, including terrorism. On 25 March 2004, Solana appointed
Gijs de Vries as the anti-terrorist co-ordinator for the CFSP, and outlined de Vries's duties as being to streamline, organise and co-ordinate the EU's fight against terrorism.
He has negotiated numerous Treaties of Association between the European Union and various Middle Eastern and Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Colombia. Solana played a pivotal role in unifying the remainder of the former Yugoslavian federation. He proposed that Montenegro form a union with Serbia instead of having full independence, stating that this was done to avoid a
domino effect that might proceed from demands for independence by Kosovo and
Vojvodina. Local media sarcastically named the new country "Solania".
On 21 January 2002, Solana said that the detainees at
Guantanamo Bay should be treated as
prisoners of war under the
Geneva Convention
upright=1.15, Original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are four treaties, and three additional protocols, that establish international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war. The singular term ''Geneva Conve ...
. The EU has stated that it hopes to avoid another war like the
Iraqi invasion through this and future negotiations, and Solana has said the most difficult moments of his job were when the United Kingdom and France, the two permanent EU
Security Council members, were in
disagreement
A disagreement is the absence of consensus or consent
Consent occurs when one person voluntarily agrees to the proposal or desires of another. It is a term of common speech, with specific definitions as used in such fields as the law, med ...
. The so-called
Vilnius letter The Vilnius letter was a declaration of support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the nations of the Vilnius Group. It was published at the height of the Iraq disarmament crisis of early 2003, expressing confidence in the evidence presented by the ...
, a declaration of support by eastern European countries for the United States' aim of régime change in Iraq, and
the letter of the eight
The "letter of the eight" was an open letter, jointly signed by the prime ministers of five of the then fifteen members of the European Union together with three high representatives for the Central European countries that were to enter the union ...
, a similar letter from the UK, Italy, and six second-tier countries, are generally seen as a low-water mark of the
CFSP. Solana operated as a "quiet diplomat", and found himself frequently pushed to the side in negotiations and sent on missions known to be impossible.
Solana has played an important role working toward a resolution to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and continues to be a primary architect of the "
Road map for Peace
The Roadmap for peace or road map for peace ( he, מפת הדרכים ''Mapa had'rakhim'', ''Khāriṭa ṭarīq as-salāmu'') was a plan to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict proposed by the Quartet on the Middle East: the United State ...
", along with the UN, Russia, and the United States in the
Quartet on the Middle East. On 22 July 2004, he met
Ariel Sharon in Israel. Sharon had originally refused to meet him, but eventually accepted that the EU was involved in the Road Map. Solana criticised Israel for obstructing the
Palestinian presidential election of 9 January 2005, but then met Sharon again on 13 January.
In November 2004 he assisted the United Kingdom, France and Germany in negotiating a nuclear material enrichment freeze with Iran. In the same month he was involved in mediating between the two presidential candidates in the
post-election developments in Ukraine, and on 21 January 2005 he invited Ukraine's new President
Viktor Yushchenko to discuss future EU membership.
[Clark, Wesley K., ''Waging Modern War''. New York: Perseus Books Group, 2001–2002, p. 15]
Catherine Ashton (2009–2014)
Although Solana was originally selected to be the first Foreign Minister, the delays in introducing the post meant that after 10 years of service he stood aside for a new candidate. After numerous candidates were put forward, EU leaders agreed on
Catherine Ashton from the United Kingdom as the first merged High Representative. Ashton was previously the
European Commissioner for Trade and otherwise had no foreign affairs experience. Ashton unexpectedly came to the top of the shortlist when she was nominated unanimously by the centre-left leaders who claimed the post. Ashton was confirmed by the European Parliament before she took up the post. In the same European Council meeting,
Pierre de Boissieu
Pierre de Boissieu (; born 1945) is a French diplomat and former French ambassador to the European Union (EU). He was the Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union from 1 December 2009 until 26 June 2011. In this post he was preceded ...
was appointed
Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
The Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union heads the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union. In April 2015, the Council appointed the Danish diplomat Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen as Secretary-General of the Council f ...
, showing that the High Representative and the Secretary-General will no longer be the same person.
In October 2010 most major appointments to the
EEAS were made, including
Pierre Vimont
Pierre Vimont (born 15 June 1949) is a French diplomat who served as the Executive Secretary-General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) from 2010 until 2015. His current rank in the French civil service is "Ambassadeur de France", which ...
(France) as Secretary General, Helga Schmid (Germany) and
Maciej Popowski (Poland) as Deputy Secretaries General and
David O'Sullivan (Ireland) as chief operating officer. Slowly other staff and ambassadors were appointed in cycles.
[Rettman, Andrew (29 October 2010]
German and Pole join roll-call of Ashton lieutenants
EU Observer Ashton formally launched the EEAS on 1 December 2010 at a low key event where she outlined her key priorities as relations with the US and China, climate change, poverty eradication, crisis management and counter-terrorism.
Following the
2010 Haiti earthquake
A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's ca ...
, Ashton chaired a meeting of the foreign relations, development and environment DGs and experts from the Council and the Situation Centre (the EU intelligence-gathering agency). There they agreed on €3 million in aid, to look for further financial assistance, to send personnel to assess the situation and to co-ordinate pledges from member states. Ashton then chaired a meeting of member states' ambassadors and acted as a general co-ordinator; for example contacts from the UN went via Ashton. Although she refused to describe it as the first act of the external action service, Ashton did emphasise that it was the first time that such a co-ordination between all the various EU foreign policy actors had been accomplished before. Spain, which held the rotating Council presidency that would have taken charge before the Lisbon Treaty, took a back seat though assisted, for example by offering use of the Spanish base in Panama. However, the majority of aid relief was dealt with bilaterally between Haiti and individual member states and Ashton was criticised afterward for being one of the few foreign representatives not to travel to Haiti personally. Despite EU ministers then agreeing to deploy
European gendarmes, criticism was levied at Ashton for failing to improve the EU's international profile during the crisis. Ashton responded thus: "There's been a recognition from the people of Haiti, the US, the UN and others of the extremely important role the EU has played. On the main issue, we should ask, have we tried to save lives, to support the people of Haiti? Yes we have."
Criticism continued to mount, including complaints that she skipped a defence meeting to attend the inauguration of
Ukraine's Prime Minister[Banks, Martin (19 March 2010]
Criticism of Ashton is 'unfair'
theParliament.com alleged bias towards British officials, lack of language skills and risking a UK-French feud over creating an EU military planning headquarters.
[Traynor, Ian (10 March 2010]
Ashton defends start in EU foreign policy role
''The Guardian'' She has been defended by some, including Commissioner
Günther Oettinger, on the ground that she has had to take on a job that combines three previous jobs and is working on establishing the EEAS so she is unable to take on everything at once, nor please everyone.
Despite early Spanish assistance during 2010, Ashton did find herself competing with the Spanish foreign minister on who was going to be speaking for the EU and the need to find consensus between the member states and institutions pushed back the expected operational date of the EEAS from spring 2010 to December 2010. In contrast to the Spanish position, in 2011 Polish foreign minister
Radek Sikorski said he would act as Ashton's "loyal deputy".
Secretary General Pierre Vimont joined those defending Ashton from criticism; praising her work in opening the EEAS office in
Benghazi, Libya as making the EEAS very popular in Libya. He also supported her over Syria and has asked her to stand for a second term. Polish Minister for Europe,
Mikołaj Dowgielewicz, also stated criticism against Ashton was "a lot of hot air" and that "she has an impossible job to do and she is doing it well. At the end of her time in office, people will be more positive about what she has done. She will leave a real legacy."
[Carroll, Dean (6 September 2011]
Catherine Ashton for a second term at the EEAS?
, Public Service Europe. Retrieved 20 September 2011
However, Former European Commission adviser Dr Fraser Cameron argued that "the criticism one hears of Ashton is pretty strong and it will be difficult to overcome the bad press she has. It represents a problem for the EEAS, when it comes to public diplomacy, and reflects the system we have for choosing leaders. Too often, the EEAS is waiting until the last member state signs up to the position; they could set out a view much earlier. When you look at places like Egypt – Cathy has been five times, but people are still not quite sure what the EEAS does or who speaks for Europe. The glass is less than half full. I think the criticism of Ashton is down to style and morale in the EEAS is not as good as it should be."
Ashton chaired the meetings between the
E3/EU+3 (P5+1 countries and the EU) and Iran in Geneva, which led to an interim agreement on 24 November 2013, and the
Joint Plan of Action.
The tone of public comment on Aston's performance in office was subsequently to be influenced especially by her contributions to negotiations over Kosovo and the normalisation of its relationship with Serbia, and over Iran over its nuclear program. In October 2013, '' Der Spiegel'' wrote of her:
But now the 57-year-old baroness is suddenly at the center of world diplomacy. And whenever she is mentioned, she earns praise for her hard-nosed negotiating skills, her stamina and her diplomatic talents. It is said that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has much faith in her. "She is discrete and perceptive, but also tenacious. That makes her an ideal negotiator", says Alexander Graf Lamsdorff, the head of Germany's business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the European Parliament and a member of its Committee on Foreign Affairs.
After the November 2013 negotiation of an interim agreement with Iran over its nuclear program,. the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' wrote that Ashton was "no longer the diplomatic dilettante". A senior French diplomat was quoted as saying, "I tip my hat to her.... She truly played a decisive role". The report continued that, after initially insisting on negotiating only with other foreign ministers, by the latter stages of the negotiations the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif "now... wanted to deal only with Lady Ashton". Said a western diplomat, "That the others agreed to this was significant. For China and Russia to be outside while she was in the room negotiating details was quite remarkable".
Federica Mogherini (2014–2019)
In July 2014, given the large number of Italian MEPs belonging to the S&D group following the 2014 election, the European Council considered her as a candidate for the position of High Representative, in Jean-Claude Juncker's new European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
. On 13 July 2014, the ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' among other European newspapers reported that her nomination proposal had been opposed by some eastern European countries, including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, where her stance towards Russia concerning the Ukrainian crisis was considered to be too soft. Nonetheless, on 2 August 2014, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi formally nominated her by letter to EC President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker, as Italy's official candidate for EU Commissioner. On 30 August, Europe's socialist Prime Ministers met prior to the convening of the European Council, at which she received the approval of the Party of European Socialists. On the same day the President Herman Van Rompuy announced that the European Council had decided to appoint the Italian Minister as its new High Representative, effective from 1 November 2014.
At her first press conference, she declared that her efforts would be devoted to establishing discussions between Russia and Ukraine to solve the crisis between the two countries.
In 2015, Mogherini won praise for her role in negotiating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an international agreement on the nuclear program of Iran, and along with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was the one to announce the accord to the world.
In February 2015, the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker appointed Michel Barnier, the former EU Internal Market Commissioner, as his special advisor on defence and security. Juncker stated that Barnier's role will be to advise the European Commission and particularly the EUHRVP Federica Mogherini on important defence and security issues. Barnier's appointment came on the heels of the nomination of senior French diplomat Alain Le Roy as the new Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS or EAS).
Josep Borrell Fontelles (2019–present)
In 2020, EU Development Ministers have launched the Team Europe aid package to support partner countries to address the pandemic and its economic consequences by providing an overall financial support of over €20 billion.
"In this global pandemic, international solidarity is not just a matter of staying true to our values", Josep Borrell Fontelles, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said. "It is also about making sure that we win the fight against the virus together."
"Unless the virus is defeated everywhere, it is not defeated. A global pandemic can only be solved globally, with united, swift and decisive global action, as we are presenting it today", Borrell Fontelles added.
In the wake of the 18 February 2022 Russian declaration on L/DPR (the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic
The Luhansk or Lugansk People's Republic (russian: Луга́нская Наро́дная Респу́блика, Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika, ; abbreviated as LPR or LNR, rus, ЛНР) is a disputed entity created by Russian-backed ...
and Donetsk People's Republic), High Representative Borrell warned Moscow to return to the tenets of the Minsk agreements, to the discussions within the Normandy Format
The Normandy Format (french: Format Normandie), also known as the Normandy contact group, is a grouping of states who met in an effort to resolve the War in Donbas and the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The four countries who make up the group— Ger ...
and the Trilateral Contact Group, which respect the borders of Ukraine.[(22 Feb 2022) EU calls on Russia to abandon decision to recognize so-called 'LPR/DPR' - Borrell's statement]
/ref>
Treaty basis
The Treaty on European Union, as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, provides in Article 15(2):
and in Article 18:
See also
* Ambassadors of the European Union
Below are current ambassadors of the European Union to non-EU countries and international organizations. They are also known as delegation heads or envoys.
Prior to the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU was represented abroad by the Ambassador of the co ...
* Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
** Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)
* Council of the European Union
The Council of the European Union, often referred to in the treaties and other official documents simply as the Council, and informally known as the Council of Ministers, is the third of the seven Institutions of the European Union (EU) as ...
* European External Action Service (EEAS)
* European Union Special Representative
* Foreign Affairs Council
* Foreign relations of the European Union
* High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, together with the Office of the High Representative (OHR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, were created in 1995 immediately after the signing of the Dayton Agreement which ended the 1992–1995 Bos ...
* Supreme Allied Commander Europe
* European Union Military Committee
Notes
References
External links
Mogherini's official term website in the European Commission
Ashton's official term website at the Council of Europe
Council Decision of 13 September 1999 appointing the Secretary-General, High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, of the Council of the European Union
on EUR-Lex
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:High Representative of the Union For Foreign Affairs And Security Policy
European External Action Service
Portfolios in the European Commission
Council of the European Union
Foreign relations of the European Union
Political offices of the European Union
European Union military personnel
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...