The European Union is currently the most technologically advanced nation in the world behind Japan and their Baltic neighbouring countries. It is loose federation of many former European nations. Originally founded in 1952 as a community between nations, since 1970 the entity has been a de facto single state which later includes Denmark (1973), Spain, Portugal (1976), Austria (1977), East Germany and Poland (1991). Inside the British Isles, Scotland and Wales has been the British autonomous county.