European Union

Aims

The aims of the European Union within its borders are:

• promote peace, its values and the well-being of its citizens
• offer freedom, security and justice without internal borders, while also taking appropriate measures at its external borders to regulate asylum and immigration and prevent and combat crime
• establish an internal market
• achieve sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and price stability and a highly competitive market economy with full employment and social progress
• protect and improve the quality of the environment
• promote scientific and technological progress
• combat social exclusion and discrimination
• promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, and protection of the rights of the child
• enhance economic, social and territorial cohesion and solidarity among EU countries
• respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity
• establish an economic and monetary union whose currency is the euro

The aims of the EU within the wider world are:

• uphold and promote its values and interests
• contribute to peace and security and the sustainable development of the Earth
• contribute to solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradication of poverty and the protection of human rights
• strict observance of international law

The EU’s aims are laid out in article 3 of the Lisbon Treaty.