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MEMBER STATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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Nationalists who struggle against an imperial center are at a disadvantage when the empire has considerable global military and economic power that it can use to fight independence movements and therefore emerges from local and regional processes that are not coordinated or causally produced by global social forces. Generations to come will certainly imagine other communities than the nation and reshape the world’s political landscape according to tectonic principles that we cannot possibly imagine today. We conclude that the global rise of the nation-state is driven by proximate and contextual political factors situated at the local and regional levels, in line with historical institutionalist arguments, rather than by domestic or global structural forces that operate over the long dure ´e. (The Rise of the Nation-State accross the World, 1816 to 2001 / Andreas Wimmer)

 

the journey | European capitals of culture | (potential) Candidate members

 

Amsterdam / Netherlands

Amsterdam. Amsterdam has earned a reputation as a world-class city of culture. Here you'll enjoy the hippest clubs, experience visits from world-class international orchestras, nurture innovative dance groups and host outstanding rock and pop venues. That’s why 2007 has been designated ‘Feel the Rhythm - music & dance’ year. The year will be packed full of special events; from classical dance to modern movement, the hottest club sounds and everything from top orchestras to the hippest underground rock sounds.
Athene /Greece

Athene is the capital and largest city of Greece. It is also known as the birthplace of democracy. [5][6] Named after the goddess Athena, Athens is one of the oldest cities in the world with a recorded history of at least 3,000 years. Today, the Greek capital is a bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis with an urban population of 3.1 million people and a metro population of 3.7 million people.

Ekathimerini
Berlin / Germany

Reichstag. After the founding of the German Empire in 1872, there was a need for a large parliamentary building in Berlin. Paul Wallot designed an imposing neo-renaissance building, 137m long and 97m wide.

Frankfurter Allgemeine
Bratislava / Slovakia

Bratislava
Brussel / Belgium

Brussels. Sinds de oprichting van België in 1830 is Brussel de hoofdstad van het koninkrijk. Van oorsprong is het een Vlaamse stad, maar vanaf de achttiende eeuw is de bevolking grotendeels Franstalig geworden. Slechts een minderheid spreekt nu nog Nederlands.

De Standaard
Bucharest / Romania

downtown
Budapest / Hungary

Parliament
             
Copenhagen / Denmark

Dublin / Ireland

Ireland in the 20st century
Helsinki / Finland

Helsinki parliament
Lissabon / Portugal

Lissabon
Ljubljana / Slovenia

Luxemburg / Luxemburg

             
Madrid / Spain

Madrid, royal palace

El Mundo
Nicosia / Cyprus

Theatre
Paris / France

Panorama Paris December 2007-2.jpg
Prague / Czech Republic

Prague. Praag wordt tot de mooiste steden van Europa gerekend. De ligging aan de Vltava geeft een speciaal cachet. In het hart van Bohemen koestert deze stad met meer dan 100 torens een schat aan historische gebouwen en een door velen benijde culturele rijkdom. Praag is een stad die men verlaat met het voornemen er ooit terug te komen.
Valetta / Malta

Riga / Latvia

Rome / Italy

             
Sofia / Bulgaria

Alexander Nevski Cathedral
Stockholm / Sweden

Stockholm
Tallin / Estonia

Tallin
Vienna / Austria

Die Presse
Vilnius / Lithuania

Warschau / Poland

Warschau
Zagreb / Croatia

The European Commission has given the green light for Croatia to join the EU.Croatia signs to join the EU scheduled 1-7- 2013

 

  European capitals of culture |
(potential) candidate members
European capitals of culture: 2011: Turku and Tallinn, 2012: Guimaräes and Maribor, 2013: Marseilles and Kosice, 2014 Umea and Riga, 2015 Mons and Plzen, 2016 Wroclaw and San Sebastian, 2017 Aarhus and Paphos , 2018 Leeuwarden and Valetta, 2019 Mathera and Plovdiv, 2020 Rijeka and Galway, 2021 Novi Sad, 2022 Kaunas and Esch, 2023 Veszprém and Timisoara, 2024 Bad Ischl, Bodø and Tartu

 

Candidate members: European Union officially negotiates on accession with Albania, Republic of North Macedonia, Iceland, but in March 2015 Iceland's government requested that "Iceland should not be regarded as a candidate country for EU membership", Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey

Potential candidate countries: Bosnia Herzegovina, and Kosovo

8 November 2023, the European Commission proposed to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova, and to give candidate status to Georgia