CNN News:两分钟听力 快速了解欧盟

The European Union is a group of countries that work together to create a single market, to allow goods, capital, services and people to move between the member states, as long as they follow the rules and they pay the entry fee.

欧盟是多国共同创建的单一市场，成员国只有遵守规则并支付税款，则允许成员之间进行货物、资本、服务和人才的流通。

But we`re getting ahead of ourselves. To start this story, we need to go right back to the end of World War II. After six years of fighting, Europe was disseminated. Economies were collapsing and mistrust was rife as old enemies face the prospect of recreating trade ties.

但是，不只是这样。是故事要追溯到第二次世界大战结束时期。经过六年战争，欧洲崩溃。尽管曾经的敌人可能要重建贸易关系，但是各国经济崩溃、不信任现象普遍存在。

France and previous occupiers Germany faced the difficult task of creating a unity for profit. So, they started talking, mainly about steel and coal.

法国和德国面临着创建共同利润的艰难任务。所以，两国开始协商，主要是关于钢铁和煤炭。

In 1951, a total of six countries, France, Belgium, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands reached their first accord by uniting the steel and coal industries, creating the European Coal and Steel Community, or the ECSC. They later introduce the European Economic Community, EEC, in 1958. These two organizations are seen as the origin of the modern European Union, that wouldn`t adopt its new name until 1993.

1951年，六个国家，法国、比利时、西德、意大利、卢森堡和荷兰达成第一个协议，统一钢铁和煤炭行业，建立欧洲煤炭共同体。1958年，又成立了欧洲经济共同体。这两个组织是现代欧盟的起源，到1993年，才开始采用欧盟的这个新名字。

More than six decades later, the European Union now represents more than half a billion people across 28 countries and with a common currency, the euro, which generates an estimated 14 trillion euros in GDP per year. The premise: countries who are economically linked are less likely to have conflicts.

在欧盟成立60多年后，欧盟国家采用统一的货币流通，欧元代表了世界上28个国家5亿多人口，同时据估计欧盟每年的GDP达14万亿欧元。但前提是，有经济利益交集的成员国之间不存在冲突。

But it isn`t a totally happy marriage for many countries. As some are affected differently by world events, there had been arguments over financial regulations, bailouts and different approaches to migration. This has given rise to anti-E.U. parties across Europe, with many calling for their countries to withdraw from arguably the world`s most powerful union.

但，对于许多国家来讲，这并不是一个完美的组织。因为同一国际事件对不同的成员国造成不同的影响时，对于金融规则、救助以及移民方法问题就会产生分歧。 这就引发了反欧盟组织，世界上许多组织呼吁自己的国家退出欧盟。