1.2 History of EU-Enlargement

From 6 to 27 members and beyond

In the beginning, six countries – Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, followed by the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community in 1957.

Five successive enlargements have followed since then:

In 1973, Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined the European Union.
In 1981, Greece became a Member State.
In 1986, Spain and Portugal became members.
In 1995, Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the EU.
In 2004, Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia joined. It was a historic enlargement which signified the re-unification of Europe after decades of division.
On 1 January 2007 Romania and Bulgaria also joined, completing this historic process.

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