European Union Structures, World Economics, and Geography Facts

Posted on Apr 4, 2025 in Geography

EU Parliament and Institutions

The European Parliament comprises 785 Members of Parliament (MEPs). Key country representations include:

  • Germany: 99
  • France
  • Great Britain
  • Italy
  • Poland: 54
  • Spain: 78

Major political groups include the EPP (European People’s Party) with 277 seats and the European Socialists with 218 seats. There are 8 main political groups in the European Parliament.

Other EU Bodies

  • European Commission: Executes laws, drafts the budget. Composed of 27 Commissioners.
  • Court of Justice: Interprets EU law. Composed of 27 Judges.
  • Court of Auditors: Audits EU finances.
  • European Ombudsman: Investigates complaints against EU institutions.

Economic Concepts

  • GDP (Gross Domestic Product): The total monetary value of goods and services produced within a country in a year.
  • Underground Economy: Business activities, including illegal peddling, not registered or taxed.
  • GDP per capita: GDP divided by the number of inhabitants.
  • Inflation: A general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
  • IPC (Consumer Price Index): An index measuring the average change over time in the prices of consumer goods and services.

Land Tenure and Cultivation

  • Smallholding: A small farm.
  • Large Estates: Large plots of land.
  • Openfield: System with small, open field plots.
  • Bocage: Landscape characterized by enclosed fields.
  • Monoculture: Cultivation of a single crop.
  • Polyculture: Cultivation of several crops on the same land.
  • Fallow: Land left unplanted for a period to restore its fertility.

Types of Agriculture

  • Subsistence Agriculture: Farming mainly for self-sufficiency, common in poorer countries. Characteristics include intensive labor, low yields, use of natural fertilizers, often monoculture.
  • Market Agriculture: Farming for sale. Characteristics include investment, less labor, selected seeds, and chemical fertilizers.

Agricultural Examples

  • Asia Monsoon Paddy Fields: Rice cultivation dependent on monsoon rains.
  • Subsistence Agriculture and Livestock: Raising cattle, growing flowers, fruits, vegetables for own use.
  • Intensive Farming: May involve controlled growth, potentially using hormones.
  • Extensive Agriculture: Large-scale farming focused on maximum productivity of single crops like corn, wheat, or cotton; carries a risk of desertification.
  • Mediterranean Agriculture: Includes wheat farming, citrus fruits, olives, and vines.
  • Tropical Agriculture: Often involves monoculture plantations (e.g., in greenhouses) run by companies from developed countries, characterized by low wages and risk of desertification.
  • Extensive Cattle and Sheep Farming: Common in countries like Argentina, Australia, USA, New Zealand for meat and wool.
  • Aquaculture: Farming of aquatic organisms.
  • Fisheries: The activity of catching fish.

Economic Sectors

  • Primary Sector: Extraction of raw materials (e.g., agriculture, livestock, fishing, forestry, mining).
  • Secondary Sector: Manufacturing and construction (industry).
  • Tertiary Sector: Services (e.g., tourism, trade, transport, administration).

Organizations and Concepts

  • OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries): An organization of petroleum-exporting nations.
  • Comparison: Explaining something by comparing it to another (e.g., ‘as’ or ‘like’).
  • Metaphor: A figure of speech where a word/phrase is applied to something non-literally (e.g., ‘pearls of your mouth’).
  • Hyperbole: Exaggerated statements not meant to be taken literally.
  • Personification: Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas (e.g., ‘the sun greets us at dawn’).

Climate Zones and Characteristics

  • Warm Zones: High and constant temperatures throughout the year.
  • Temperate Zones: Average temperatures vary according to the seasons.
  • Cold Zones: Low temperatures for most of the year.
  • Thermal Amplitude: The difference between the average temperatures of the warmest and coldest months.

Climate Types by Rainfall

There are 8 main types:

  1. Desert
  2. Equatorial (Warm)
  3. Tropical (Warm)
  4. Mediterranean (Temperate)
  5. Subtropical Oceanic (Temperate)
  6. Continental (Cold/Temperate)
  7. Polar (Cold)
  8. Mountain (Varies with altitude)

Climographs: Graphical representations of temperature and precipitation data for a specific location.

Vegetation Types by Climate

  • Equatorial: Rainforest
  • Tropical: Savanna
  • Desert: Cactus, sparse vegetation
  • Mediterranean: Cork oak, scrub, shrub
  • Oceanic: Deciduous forest (e.g., beech)
  • Continental: Evergreen forest (e.g., pine), grassland, steppe
  • Polar: Tundra or no vegetation
  • High Mountain: Staggered vegetation (forest, meadow, absence of vegetation at highest altitudes)

World Geographical Features

Africa

  • Rift Valley
  • Nile River
  • Drakensberg Mountains
  • Congo Basin
  • Mount Kenya
  • Mount Kilimanjaro

Europe

  • Great European Plain
  • Scandinavian Mountains
  • Ural Mountains
  • Vosges Mountains
  • Black Forest
  • Young Mountain Chains: Baetic System, Pyrenees, Apennines, Alps, Carpathian Mountains, Balkan Mountains, Caucasus Mountains
  • Iberian System

Asia

  • Himalayas (e.g., Mount Everest, Kangchenjunga)
  • Indus River
  • High volcanic and seismic activity

Oceania

  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • New Guinea
  • Tasmania
  • Great Dividing Range

Political Systems and EU Policies

  • Immature Democracy: Respect for human rights exists, but institutions are still imperfect.
  • Islamic Foundation: States where religious norms heavily influence or become civil laws.
  • Multiculturalism: Civil laws respecting the equality of all races, religions, and languages.
  • PAC (Common Agricultural Policy): EU policy for agriculture.
  • Tariffs: Taxes paid on goods crossing borders (historically significant, reduced within EU).
  • ESF (European Social Fund): EU fund supporting employment and social inclusion.
  • ERDF (European Regional Development Fund): EU fund promoting economic and social cohesion across regions.
  • Cohesion Funds: Funds established by the Maastricht Treaty to support less prosperous member states.
  • Maastricht Treaty: Established the European Union, paved the way for monetary union (Euro).
  • Euro: The single currency of the Eurozone.
  • European Central Bank (ECB): Manages the Euro and EU monetary policy.