EuroMillions is available in nine countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Learn more about it. English is the only language used for ticket sales and lottery results.
There have been over 100 million tickets sold since its inception in 2004. The current estimated world-wide prize fund is $70 billion (€55 billion).
Of this, $10 billion (€8 billion) goes to the winner of the EuroMillions jackpot. The other prizes include $2.5 billion (€20 million) second place, $1 billion (€8 billion) third place, and 50 million euros (USD 60 million) for fourth place.
The main goal of EuroMillions is to create excitement around the game and encourage people to join in on the action. Some other reasons why EuroMillions exists include raising funds for charity, allowing residents of different countries to be involved in one project, and providing a way for companies to promote themselves through marketing campaigns linked to particular numbers.
Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Finland, Greece, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are among the 19 nations that utilize the euro. The European Union was established in 1993 to provide a single market for goods and services, eliminate border controls between its members, and establish common policies in agriculture, economics, science, and security. It is now the largest trading bloc in the world after it joined the WTO in 1995.
France is by far the biggest economy in the eurozone with Japan's economy being almost twice as large. In fact, Japan's economy is so large that it can be considered as the number two economy in the world after the United States. However many countries rely on exports to other countries, not just France but also Germany, Italy, and Spain who account for nearly half of all eurozone exports. With the economic crisis that has hit Europe since 2008, these four countries have been unable to export as much as they import which has caused the economy of each country to suffer.
Germany ranks first in the eurozone when it comes to population size with around 80 million people. It is followed by France with 66 million people and Italy with 58 million people.
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain comprise the eurozone. Switzerland is expected to join them soon.
The European Union (EU) is an economic alliance of 28 member states including Sweden, Norway, and Israel. It consists of four regional bodies: the European Council, the European Parliament, the European Central Bank, and the Committee of the Regions. The EU has been described as the world's most successful experiment in federalism and as a model for peace and cooperation among nations.
France began the process of joining the European Economic Community (EEC), which would later become the EU, in May 1972. The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 initiated a series of steps that would lead to French withdrawal from the EEC and the creation of its own currency, the euro. The UK joined the EEC in 1973 and signed up to the euro in 1999. Ireland joined in 1973 and started using the euro in 2008. Denmark, Finland, and Germany entered the euro in 1999. So, seven countries have adopted the euro as their official currency. The other members state their plans to adopt the euro at some point in the future.
There are 19 EU member nations in all. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain accept the euro. The UK decided not to join the euro despite having been a partner in the original creation of the currency.
The euro is also accepted in Croatia but negotiations on joining Europe's largest trading bloc are still underway. Montenegro also plans to adopt the currency once it becomes available but this plan has not yet materialized.
Euro notes and coins are issued by each country that adopts the currency. However, since most countries use their national banks to issue loans in euros as well as their own currencies, they do not need to borrow from the European Central Bank (ECB). Instead, the ECB provides the loan to the banking system as a whole because these banks are considered too big to fail. In return, the banks must pledge part of their reserves of euro area banknotes and coins as collateral for the loan.
Countries that choose to adopt the euro must meet several requirements to qualify. For example, they must have adequate credit ratings to be able to make timely payments of interest and principal on their euro bonds. Also, there must be no major financial crises looming over any of the candidate countries.
The FAW stated in a statement that the idea of bringing UEFA Euro 2020 to 13 different nations was designed to provide smaller countries, like as Wales, with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in organising a major event. The statement added that no decision has been made on which cities will host the matches.
The decision was made after talks between the FAW and various football associations around Europe about who could help organise the tournament. Wales had been hoping to have both tournaments run simultaneously but this was not possible due to scheduling conflicts with other European countries. It is hoped that the decision will help raise money for Welsh sports facilities. The FAW stated that the income generated from hosting Euro 2020 will go towards improving football facilities in Wales.
The decision was met with criticism by some Welsh politicians who felt it was unfair on countries like Wales who had applied to stage the tournament. Shadow Sports Minister Catrin Gwyndor Jones said: "Given how many countries were interested in hosting, it's very disappointing that only 13 will be chosen. This underlines why we need a competitive bidding process for major events - it gives countries like Wales the chance to show what they can do."
Its members come from 29 different countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Romania, Latvia, Ukraine, and... Albania!
Europe's most popular sport is soccer. The world's largest soccer organization is FIFA: the Fédération Internationale de Football Association. There are more than 200 national football associations across the world, with about one third of them in Europe. UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) includes all of these associations except for Russia & Qatar.
The first official international soccer match was played in 1866 between England and Germany. A few months later, the two countries met again at another international tournament where both teams competed against each other for honor and glory. This time, however, there was a new name for the game - "association football". Today, this is known as soccer worldwide.
European countries have professional leagues for several sports, but only soccer has divisions designed to give its players an opportunity to move up to a higher level. A club or team can be assigned any number of positions from 1 to 4 depending on their ability. For example, FC Barcelona has been assigned the positions of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd because they are considered top-quality clubs.
What does the presence of 24 nations at Euro 2020 signify for the format? This summer's Euro 2020 will be the second time that 24 countries compete in the final tournament—but why the expansion? The Euros were originally contested in 1960, with the quadrennial competition consisting of four teams until the 1980 edition, when eight nations competed.
The number of teams has since increased to 16 in 2012 and 20 from 2016 to now. France and Italy have been banned by UEFA from competing in Europe's most prestigious club tournament because of concerns about corruption within their leagues.
Euro 2020 will be the first European Championship without these two countries since it was first held in 1960. Both France and Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, forcing UEFA to expand the tournament to 24 teams for the first time.
The decision was also made to extend the finals to a straight knockout stage to avoid repetitions of results from earlier rounds. England and Germany had never been defeated during qualifying campaigns, but both countries were knocked out by lower-ranked opponents in the round of 16 in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
It was also reported that Euro 2020 could become the last European Championship staged in Europe. Although no official statement has been made by UEFA, president Michel Platini suggested in September 2017 that he did not believe another tournament would be held in Europe following the completion of Euro 2020.
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