Eurozone

The Eurozone, also called the European Zone or EZ, was an Earth superpower which competed with the United States of America in the early 21st century. It was composed of 25 European countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, and Kosovo, (PROSE: Trading Futures) but excluding Poland. (AUDIO: Hothouse) Its form of currency was "euromarks" and it had a Eurozone Space Agency with a Geneva Control and a European Secret Service headquartered in Brussels. Their ULTRA computer was the most powerful computer in the world, located in a bunker beneath the ESS headquarters. (PROSE: Trading Futures)

History
A British Prime Minister signed the Euro-Combine Treaty in the early 21st century, as did all other member-states of the European Union, which increased political ties further; some sovereignty was given up in exchange for the promise of a "united, integrated European superpower". The Internal Counter-Intelligence Service and other reactionary forces saw this as a threat to the UK's independence. (AUDIO: The Longest Night)

Under the new Eurozone drug laws, vitamin pills were banned, ecstasy and marijuana were legal (the latter more socially acceptable than tobacco), and nicopills replaced cigarettes but were themselves highly addictive. (PROSE: Trading Futures, AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)

When the world was being ravaged by the greenhouse effect, the Eurozone closed its borders after a millions-strong stream of refugees from North Africa and the Baltic Sea states; water shortages and riots spread through the bloc. (AUDIO: Hothouse)

The Eurowars split the continent in the early 21st century. General Mariah Learman and Jonah Cosgrove fought in it, and the former would briefly form the New Britain dictatorship. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks, PROSE: Trading Futures)

Around the 2030s, when Anji Kapoor's school peers would be nearing their pensions, tensions were high with the United States, as both blocs had sent "peacekeeping" forces to North Africa. Italy was engulfed in civil war. Eurozone youth rebelled against Anji's generation by being teetotal, passing their exams, and having steady jobs; they wore suits and r:C ("rebel: Conform") badges. (PROSE: Trading Futures)

Around the mid-21st century, the Eurozone Space Agency sent up the Jules Verne. It had a second craft, the Johannes Kepler. (AUDIO: The Feast of Axos)

Behind the scenes

 * In reality, the is the collection of European countries that have given up their currencies and adopted the Euro.
 * Both Trading Futures and The Time of the Daleks came out in spring 2002 and tie in to each other by mentioning a Eurowar. Trading Futures refers to Learman's fall in the past tense, but it ended up being set decades earlier than The Time of the Daleks.
 * Since the Cold War had ended since the airing of Warriors of the Deep, the creation of two hostile power blocs in the 21st century explains the origins of the East and West Blocs.