欧盟 is the standard Chinese abbreviation for the European Union, a political and economic union of 27 European countries. The first character 欧 (Ōu) stands for Europe, short for 欧洲 (Ōuzhōu), while 盟 (méng) means 'alliance' or 'union', reflecting its nature as a cooperative organization among sovereign states. Together, 欧盟 functions as a proper noun referring specifically to this supranational entity—not just any European alliance.

The term is widely used in Chinese media, diplomacy, business, and academia when discussing EU policies, trade agreements, regulations (e.g., GDPR), or international relations. It appears in formal contexts such as news reports, official documents, and academic writing, and is rarely used in casual speech unless referring to current events. Unlike English, Chinese does not capitalize proper nouns, but 欧盟 always appears without spaces or hyphens and is never pluralized or modified with measure words like 个 in formal usage.