The Robert Schuman Foundation presents detailed fact sheets on the European countries for you to learn everything about the EU Member states and their neighbours. To access the sheets containing geographic, social, economic and political facts click on the map.

Among the five continents Europe holds the lead in terms of gender equality in politics.
These tree charts give you the ranking of all EU27 states concerning the percentage of women in government and parliament.

Just as the debate over pensions is emerging in some EU countries the Robert Schuman Foundation has published a table to understand the retirement systems in operation in the 27 Member States of the EU.

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The European anthem is taken from the Ninth Symphony composed in 1823 by Ludwig van Beethoven based on a poem by Friedrich von Schiller, the Ode to Joy, written in 1785.
This melody, the Union's official anthem since 1985, calls to mind, through the universal language of music, the ideals of freedom, peace, solidarity embodied by Europe.
The Ode to joy doesn't replace the Member states' own national anthems; it celebrates their common values and illustrates the European motto "united in diversity".