The 2004 enlargement of the European Union was the largest single expansion of the European Union (EU), both in terms of territory, number of states and population, however not in terms of gross domestic product (wealth). It occurred on the 1st May, 2004.
The simultaneous accessions concerned the following countries: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Seven of these were members of the former Eastern Bloc, with one from the former Yugoslavia and the remaining two being Mediterranean islands.
Part of the same wave of enlargement was the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007, who were unable to join in 2004 but constitute according to the Commission part of the fifth enlargement.
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With the end of the Second World War in 1945, Europe found itself divided into two spheres of power, the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR). The European Economic Community (EEC) was created in 1957 between six countries within the US sphere and expanded to twelve countries across western Europe. Eastern Europe had a looser economic grouping with the USSR known as Comecon. To the south there was Yugoslavia, a non-aligned, but communist, federation.
In 1989, the Cold War between the two superpowers was coming to an end, with the USSR's influence over eastern Europe collapsing. As the communist states began their transition to free market democracies, aligning to Euro-Atlantic integration, the question of enlargement to the east was thrust onto the EEC's agenda.
The Phare strategy was launched soon after to adapt the structure of the central and eastern European countries (Pays d'Europe Centrale et Orientale (PECO)) to Western system and more specifically to the European Economic Community. One of the major tools of this strategy was the Regional Quality Assurance Program (Programme Régional d'Assurance Qualité (PRAQ)) which started in 1993 to help the PECO States implement the New Approach in their economy.[1]
The Acquis Communautaire contained 3,000 directives and some 100,000 pages in the Official Journal of the European Union to be transposed. It demanded a lot of administrative work and immense economic change, and raised major cultural problems - e.g. new legal concepts and language consistency problems.
Copenhagen criteria Nuclear plants.[2]
The Treaty of Accession 2003 was signed on 16 April 2003, at the Stoa of Attalus in Athens, Greece, between the then-EU members and the ten acceding countries. The text also amended the main EU treaties, including the Qualified Majority Voting of the Council of the European Union. The treaty was ratified on time and entered into force on 1 May 2004 amid ceremonies around Europe: leaders met in Dublin for fireworks while citizens enjoyed a city-wide celebration styled as the Day of Welcomes. President Romano Prodi took part in celebrations on the Italian-Slovenian border at the divided town of Gorizia/Nova Gorica, at the German-Polish border, the EU flag was raised and Ode to Joy was sung and there was a laser show in Malta among the various other celebrations.[3]
As of May 2011, there are no longer any special restrictions on the free movement of citizens of these new member states.
With their original accession to the EU, free movement of people between all 25 states would naturally have applied. However, due to concerns of mass migration from the new eastern members to the old EU-15, some transitional restrictions were put in place. Mobility within the EU-15 (including Cyprus) and within the new states (minus Cyprus) functioned as normal (although the new states had the right to impose restrictions on travel between them). Between the old and new states, transitional restrictions up to 2011 could be put in place, and EU workers still had a preferential right over non-EU workers in looking for jobs even if restrictions were placed upon their country. No restrictions were placed on Cyprus or Malta. The following restrictions were put in place by each country;[4]
Despite the fears, migration within the EU concerns less than 2% of the population.[5] However, the migration did cause controversy in those countries which saw a noticeable influx, creating the notion of the Polish Plumber in the west, caricaturing the cheap manual labour from the east making an imprint on the west. Following the 2007 enlargement, most countries placed restrictions on the new states, including the most open in 2004 (Ireland and the United Kingdom) with only Sweden, Finland and the 2004 members (minus Malta and Hungary).[6] But as of April 2008, these restrictions on the eight members (they continue for Romania and Bulgaria) have been dropped by all members except Germany and Austria.[7]
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7 years after the enlargement, the EU is still "digesting" the change. The influx of new members has effectively put an end to the Franco-German engine behind the EU, the new members are setting the policy agenda for example Eastern Partnership. Despite fears of paralysis, the decision making process has not been hampered by the new membership and if anything the legislative output of the institutions has increased, however justice and home affairs (which operates by unanimity) has suffered. The Commission sees the enlargement as a success, however until the enlargement is fully accepted by the public future enlargements may be slow in coming.[7]
Since 1974 Cyprus has been divided between the Greek south (the Republic of Cyprus) and the northern areas under Turkish military occupation (the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). The Republic of Cyprus is recognised as the sole legitimate government by most countries, including the entire European Union, while the northern occupied area is recognised only by Turkey.
Cyprus began talks to join the EU, which provided impetus to solve the dispute. With the agreement of the Annan Plan for Cyprus, it was hoped that the two countries would join the EU together as a single United Cyprus Republic. Turkish Cypriots supported the plan. However, in a referendum on 24 April 2004 the Greek Cypriots rejected the plan. Thus, a week later, the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU with political issues unresolved. Legally, as the northern republic is not recognised by the EU, the entire island is a member of the EU as part of the Republic of Cyprus, though the de facto situation is that the Government is unable to extend its controls into the occupied areas.
Efforts to reunite the island continue as of 2011.
Accession of Poland to the European Union took place in May 2004. Poland had been negotiating with the EU since 1989.
With the fall of communism in 1989/1990 in Poland, Poland embarked on a series of reforms and changes in foreign policy, intending to join the EU and NATO. On 19 September 1989 Poland signed the agreement for trade and trade co-operation with the (then) European Community (EC). Polish intention to join the EU was expressed by Polish Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki in his speech in the European Parliament in February 1990 and in June 1991 by Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Krzysztof Skubiszewski in Sejm (Polish Parliament).
On 19 May 1990 Poland started a procedure to begin negotiations for an association agreement and the negotiations officially began in December 1990. About a year later, on 16 December 1991 the European Union Association Agreement was signed by Poland. The Agreement came into force on 1 February 1994 (its III part on the mutual trade relations came into force earlier on 1 March 1992).
As a result of diplomatic interventions by the states of the Visegrád group, the European Council decided at its Copenhagen summit in June 1993 that: "the associate member states from Central and Eastern Europe, if they so wish, will become members of the EU. To achieve this, however, they must fulfil the appropriate conditions." Those conditions (known as the Copenhagen criteria, or simply, membership criteria) were:
At the Luxembourg summit in 1997, the EU accepted the Commission's opinion to invite several Central and Eastern European states (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus) to start talks on their accession to the EU. The negotiation process started on 31 March 1998. Poland finished the accession negotiations in December 2002. Than the Accession Treaty was signed in Athens on 16 April 2003 (Treaty of Accession 2003). After the ratification of that Treaty in the Polish European Union membership referendum, 2003, Poland and other 9 countries became the members of EU on 1 May 2004.
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