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27 countries and 24 official languages

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across one continent in the Northern Hemisphere.

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Not every country in Europe is in the European Union,

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but the partnership extends from the Iberian Peninsula in the west

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to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean,

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formed after the devastating world wars of the 20th century.

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The Association of Countries which, in 1993, came to be called the European Union, or the EU for short, is designed to bring people together.

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The EU's motto is United in Diversity, and a trip around some of the member states shows us just how diverse the Union is.

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the biggest country is France although Germany with over 80 million people has

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the largest population the island state of Malta is the smallest country in the

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EU and Valletta is the smallest capital while some countries such as Austria and

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and Slovenia are mountainous, the Netherlands, most of whose land is reclaimed from the sea,

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is almost completely flat.

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The countries which make up today's Union have much to tell us about how things change

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over time. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were once a part of the Soviet Union. Hungary

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and Austria were once united in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for more than a hundred years

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Ireland was part of the United Kingdom.

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Europe is also culturally diverse, from the human towers of Tarragona to the sport of

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Hurling in Dublin.

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From the masks of the Venice Carnival

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to the glamour of the Cannes Film Festival,

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these cultural traditions continue

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alongside more recent ones, mixing new and old.