The largest expansion of the European Union (EU), in terms of territory, number of states, and population took place on 1 May 2004. The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
But before that came a few words about the past.
With the end of the Second World War in 1945, Europe
found itself divided between a capitalist Western Bloc and a communist Eastern
Bloc, as well as Third World neutral countries. The European Economic Community
(EEC) was created in 1957 between six countries within the Western Bloc and
later expanded to twelve countries across Europe. European communist countries
had a looser economic grouping with the USSR known as Comecon. To the south
there was a non-aligned communist federated country – Yugoslavia.
And Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill said:
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic
an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all
the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin,
Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous
cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet
sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet
influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control
from Moscow”.
In 1989, the Cold War between the two superpowers was
coming to an end, with the USSR's influence over communist Europe collapsing.
As the communist states began their transition to free market democracies,
aligning to Euro-Atlantic integration, the question of enlargement into the
continent was thrust onto the EEC's agenda.
The largest expansion of the European Union, in
terms of territory, number of states, and population took place on 1 May 2004.
The simultaneous accessions concerned the following
countries: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Seven of these were part of the former
Eastern Bloc (of which three were from the former Soviet Union), one of the former
Yugoslavia, and the remaining two were Mediterranean islands and former British
colonies.
On 1 May 2004 ten new countries with a combined
population of almost 75 million joined the EU. This historic enlargement of the
EU from 15 to 25 members is the culmination of a long accession process leading
to the reunification of a Europe that had been divided for half a century by
the Iron Curtain and the Cold War.
In Poland, the largest new EU member, a chorus sang in
a Warsaw square and a video screen showed scenes of Poland's climb from
post-World War II destruction through communist domination to democratic rule. At
the German-Polish border, the hoisting of the EU flag was accompanied by
fireworks and the "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
At the Italian-Slovenian border, European Commission
President Romano Prodi presided over a reunification ceremony in the Italian
town of Gorizia and the Slovenian town of Nova Goricia, divided by an iron
fence since the end of World War II.
"May 1 will be a milestone in the history of
Europe," EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said.
"It is Europe's response to the end of the Cold
War and an opportunity to heal the wounds of the past, wounds of war and
dictatorship."
Romano Prodi said:
"Five decades after our great project of European
integration began, we are celebrating the fact that Europeans are no longer
kept apart by artificial ideological barriers. […] We share the same destiny
and we are stronger when we act together. I urge all Europeans to join in
celebrations of this astonishing achievement."
On 1 January 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became member
states of the European Union in the fifth wave of EU enlargement. Croatia
joined the European Union on 1 July 2013.
We are still waiting for the accession of the other
countries of the former Eastern Bloc to the European Union - Albania, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
"We can build the European Federation"
