Europe
The European Union is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 European countries that together cover much of the European continent. The EU member states are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK.
Languages
Across Europe, you will hear many different languages. Within the European Union, for example, there are 24 officially recognised languages.
Most Europeans are multilingual. Over half of Europeans (54%) are able to hold a conversation in at least one additional language, a quarter (25%) are able to speak at least two additional languages and one in ten (10%) are conversant in at least three.
Most countries in Europe offer a choice of higher education study programmes in their local language as well as in English and other leading global languages. On the Country profile pages, you can see the study programme language options for each country.
Most of Europe has a relatively mild, temperate climate. The coldest places are in the far north and in the high mountains. The warmest places are in the far south and south-east. The weather is warmest and driest in summer (roughly June to September) and coldest in winter (roughly December to March).
Currency
19 of the 28 European Union countries use the Euro
currency. These countries are: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Other countries in Europe have their own individual currencies. Visit the Country profiles to find out more.
