This work was compiled on the eve of the European elections and gathers the key statistical elements allowing a comparison between France's economic and social situation and that of its European Union partners. A perspective of this kind serves to identify the main trends, both common and divergent, that affect the Union as a whole. It is all the more important in that the Union, formed in 1958 of six countries, now has twenty-eight member States, with their varied histories and geographies, their different levels of economic development, and their disparate institutional and social structures. So as you can imagine, drawing comparisons has not been an easy task.This work follows on from the one published in 2008, the year in which France held the Presidency of the European Union.