List of countries in the 1990s
The European Union was a sui generis supranational organisation which had 12 (later 15) member states. It was established on 1 November 1993. The member states had transferred a measure of their legislative, executive, and judicial powers to the institutions of the EU, and as such the EU had some elements of sovereignty, without generally being considered a sovereign state. The European Union did not claim to be a sovereign state and had only limited capacity for relations with other states.