Enlargement of the European Union
Albania
Austria
Belarus
Belgium
Bos.
& Herz.
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech
Rep.
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Ireland
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Mac.
Malta→
The continental territories of the member
states of the European Union (European
Communities pre-1993), animated in order of
accession.
Moldova
Mont.
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switz-
erland
Turkey
Ukraine
United
Kingdom
Enlargement of the European Union is
the process of expanding the European Union
(EU) through the accession of new member
states. This process began with the Inner Six,
who founded the European Coal and Steel
Community (the EU’s predecessor) in 1951.
Since then, the EU’s membership has grown
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Enlargement of the European Union
1
to twenty-seven with the most recent expan-
sion to Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.
Currently, accession negotiations are un-
der way with several states. The process of
enlargement is sometimes referred to as
European integration. However, this term is
also used to refer to the intensification of co-
operation between EU member states as na-
tional governments allow for the gradual har-
monisation of national laws.
In order to join the European Union, a
state needs to fulfil the economic and politic-
al conditions generally known as the Copen-
hagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit
in June 1993), which require a stable demo-
cratic government which respects the rule of
law, and its corresponding freedoms and in-
stitutions. According
to
the Maastricht
Treaty, each current member state and also
the European Parliament have to agree to
any enlargement.
Historical enlargements
See also: History of the European Union and
Statistics relating to enlargement of the
European Union
Applications for accession*
Applicant
Issued
Accession/
failure
rationale
Albania
28 April
2009
(not yet official
candidate)
Austria
17 July
1989
1 January 1995
Belgium
N/A
23 J