EU enlargement

The European Union (EU) was created by six founding states in 1957 (following the earlier establishment by the same six states of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952) and has grown to 27 member states. There have been five enlargements, with the largest occurring on May 1, 2004, when 10 new member states joined, and the most recent on January 1, 2007, when Bulgaria and Romania joined.
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In 2003 a total of 13 countries in central and eastern Europe and the Mediterranean were recognised by the European Council as candidates for accession to the European Union (EU). The following ten countries signed the Accession Treaty with a view to joining the EU on 1 May 2004: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. Two other countries, Bulgaria and Romania, entered into accession negotiations in 2003 and have been given the prospect of entry into the EU in 2007. Turkey is the other official candidate for accession.