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The European Union (EU) has expanded a number of times throughout its history by way of the accession of new member states to the Union. To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria (named after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable democratic government that ...
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are party to the EU's founding treaties, and thereby subject to the privileges and obligations of membership. They have agreed by the treaties to share their own sovereignty through the institutions of the European Union in certain aspects of government.
This was the EU's fourth enlargement and came into effect on 1 January of that year. It is also known as the EFTA Enlargement round. [1] All these states were previous members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and had traditionally been less interested in joining the EU than other European countries.
The European Union (EU) was originally created by six founding states in 1958, but has grown to its current size of 27 member states. There were five successive enlargements during this period, with the largest occurring on May 1, 2004, when 10 member states joined.
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 ...
The most recent enlargement of the European Union saw Croatia become the European Union's 28th member state on 1 July 2013. The country applied for EU membership in 2003, and the European Commission recommended making it an official candidate in early 2004.
With EU elections coming up in June, a survey commissioned by the European Parliament showed more than 70% of EU citizens believe they benefit from their country's membership in the European Union.
The apportionment of seats within the European Parliament to each member state of the European Union is set out by the EU treaties. According to European Union treaties, the distribution of seats is " degressively proportional " to the population of the member states, with negotiations and agreements between member states playing a role. [ 1 ]