France is home to Europe's dinosaur, Germany to 25m ghomes, the UK is teen mum capital, and Italy doesn't make enough babies. Cool info on the current 25 members of the growing EU superstate . . . more

The Germans are frozen-faced engineers, the Poles bushy-moustached Lech Walesas, and ugly English girls walk around rain-sodden streets . . . more

Europe has the lowest birth rate of the continents and the EU'S 5th and biggest enlargement increased its population by a fifth, geographical area by 1/4, but GDP by less than 1/20 . . . more

Known also as 'aliens from Brussels' or 'those people in Brussels', they have stipulated the maximum degree of curvature for cucumbers and bananas . . . more

The EU superstate has an outpost of tyranny on its eastern border, is hungry for Russia's gas and oil, and is fighting to remake the world order along with Russia, India, China and the USA . . . more

Great Britain has BP and Shell, Germany DaimlerChrysler and the Volkswagen Group, and Slovakia is set to become a base of major car manufacturing . . . more

The EU pledges to double aid to poor countries . . . more

Mars Express was Europe's 1st mission to another planet in 2004, and the Germans later hosted CEBIT 2005 in Hanover, one of the world's most important technology fairs . . . more

The London Stock Exchange has repelled a takeover bid by Deutsche Boerse, but can it hold onto future independence?

Has the way been cleared for a possible bid from rival exchange Euronext?

London FTSE 100
Paris CAC 40
XETRA DAX

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London's growth is 'swallowing' the south of England, and UK stag night revellers have found Bratislava
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"New Europeans", "Old Europe", "New Europe" . . . more

The EU superstate wants you! Enter one of the many competitions that could win you a place at one of the EU institutions.

At the same time hundreds of thousands of 'new europeans', mainly Poles, are migrating towards London and Dublin. In several years their numbers will exceed 1m
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Subsidies are beginning to flow to relatively poor Polish farmers, whose exports have surged since the big bang. But the EU is the worst offender among the rich countries' obscene agricultural protectionism
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Germany makes the best cars in Europe, one in ten European cars is a Renault, while Asian carmakers are destroying Euro markets.
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Britain's TESCO has become one of the early users of tiny RFID chips to replace bar codes, and is continuing its march into Eastern Europe. A rising giant . . . more

Billions were spent on the delayed Typhoon Eurofighter jet project. It travels at 2 times the speed of sound - designed as a cold war interceptor
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Europe has no internet superpowers like America's eBay, Google, Yahoo and MSN, but e-commerce growth in Europe is predicted to average 33% annually through to 2009. B2B is being powered by France, Germany and Britain . . . more

Western Europeans consume about half as much energy as Americans, and about the same as Japanese
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Stunning Greek singer Helena Paparizou won the 50th Eurovision battle and the march of the multiplexes continues, with European cinema-ticket sales expected to pass $1bn mark in 2005 . . . more

Allianz, Aviva, Crédit Agricole, Fortis and HSBC among others - Europe has some of the largest banking and financial services powerhouses in the world . . . more

Europe spends the most on food, beverages and tobacco globally: it also gave the world Paella, Spaghetthi Bolognese, Pizza, Lasagne and Moussaka.
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Low-price generics are starting to flow from the new eastern EU members . . . more

Western Europe still lags behind North America in the number of PCs per 1,000 people, at around 500, but is well ahead of Japan.

In terms of cybercities, Helsinki Virtual Village will house 12,000 people and 700 high-tech companies by 2010 . . . more

Advertising expenditure in Europe is second after North America at well over $80bn, and the world's largest independent media buyer - Carat - is based in London . . . more

The largest deposits of copper ore in Europe - covering over 550 km2, lie in south-west Poland, and are mined by KGHM . . . more

Europe has one of the strongest original-design mobile-phone manufacturers, in the form of Finland's Nokia . . . more

Western Europe has the greatest no. of international tourist arrivals in the world, and a "single sky" in Europe is due to come into effect, which will soon be inhabited by the largest passenger jet to take to the skies - the Airbus A380 . . . more