Talk:Timeline of European Union history

	European Union portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject European Union, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the European Union on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.European UnionWikipedia:WikiProject European UnionTemplate:WikiProject European UnionEuropean Union articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Maps[edit]

There has been talk for some time at Wikiproject Maps to have a map of the world for each year. Whether this is accomplished or not, such maps would show the nation states of the world, i.e., not the EU. I was thinking we could have a map of the EU for each year on each of the year pages. However, the question is whether the map should focus on Europe, or show Europe in the world as the main year pages map would. The latter option would require waiting for each of their maps to be finished, then working out which dependent territories at the time were part of the EU or not (I'm sure someone knows). This would be more informative, but hard work. The first option is easier, and shows Europe up close and hence the details where it matters so to speak.

A second question is, do we just show the EU? I would be in favour of that for simplicity, but we could take the opportunity to show other developments. For example, show the size of the Eurozone within the EU, Schengen borders or candidacy status (it might over complicate matters and detract from the central point, but it might be interesting from the point of view of showing the UK being rejected, and Norway turning back at the last second after the referenda). So, what do people thing? We should get a clear idea of what to aim for, if indeed people think it is a good idea in principle, before we start work on it (note to SSJ: please don't create a pile of svgs, not everyone can edit them - maybe later once the bugs are worked out).- _JLogan ^t: 21:48, 18 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, J. Taking your questions in order:

Should the map focus on Europe, or show Europe in the world? Just Europe: keep it simple.
Should the map just show the EU, or show other concepts (Eurozone, Schengen, candidacy, etc)? It should just show the EU. Keep it simple. The only country with a realistic chance of accession within the next 5 years is Croatia (barring an emergency application from Iceland) - Turkey should be one of them, but that isn't going to happen within the next 5. It's probably not worth planning past 2014, so go with the EU's present geographical expanse.

Other points:

As for format, the Wikipedia:WikiProject Indian maps or Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. regions/Maps seems good.
As for projection, I would prefer equidistant cylindrical.
Where is the abovementioned discussion taking place? Link?

Regards, Anameofmyveryown (talk) 01:03, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]