Geography of the European Union

The geography of the European Union describes the geographic features of the European Union (EU), a multinational polity that occupies a large portion of Europe and covers 4,225,104 km² (1,631,322 sq mi). Its European territory extends northeast to Finland, northwest to Ireland, southeast to Cyprus in Asia and southwest to the Spanish exclaves on the Mediterranean shores of North Africa. Additionally, the EU includes numerous islands around the world, and French Guiana in South America.

Collectively, it represents the seventh largest territory in the world by area. Including all overseas territories, the EU shares borders with 20 countries.

The European Union has 27 member states. See the geography of each current member state:

Most of the European Union is on the European continent. The only member state of the EU which is geographically outside of Europe is Cyprus, which is in West Asia. The EU includes less than half of the territory of Europe. Significant parts of the continent especially in the east (e.g. European Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) and smaller parts in the north and centre are not part of the EU. The member states of the EU have land borders with 21 other countries and 3 dependent territories.

It is estimated that the coastline of the continental European Union is 66,000 km (41,000 miles) long, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea, and the Baltic Sea. With overseas territories included, the European Union is shored by the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as by the Caribbean Sea. European mountain ranges include the Alps, Pyrenees, Carpathian Mountains, Balkan Mountains and Scandinavian Mountains, and the border mountain ranges of the Caucasus and the Urals; the highest mountain in the Union is Mont Blanc in the Alps. Lake Vänern in Sweden is the largest lake in the Union.

Several overseas territories and dependencies of various member states are also formally part of the EU (for Spain: the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla; for Portugal: the Azores and Madeira; for France: Réunion, French Guiana, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Mayotte and Saint Martin) while in other cases territories associated with member states are not part of the EU (for Denmark: Greenland and the Faroe Islands; for the Netherlands: Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten; for France: French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna or New Caledonia).

Including overseas territories of member states, the EU includes most types of climate from Arctic to tropical. Meteorological averages for the EU as a whole are therefore not meaningful. The majority of the population live in areas with a Mediterranean climate (southern Europe), a temperate maritime climate (western Europe), or a warm summer continental or hemiboreal climate (in eastern member states).

Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous Southern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from the British Isles in the west to Poland in the east. These two halves are separated by the mountain chains of Pyrenees, Alps, Carpathian and Balkan Mountains. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea complex, and the Barents Sea.