Germany (in German, Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is one of the twenty-seven sovereign states that make up the European Union. Constituted as a social and democratic state of law, its form of government is the parliamentary and federal republic. Its capital is Berlin. It is made up of sixteen federal states (Bundesländer) and is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, Sweden (maritime border) and the Baltic Sea; to the east with Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south with Austria and Switzerland; and to the west with France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands.