2004 enlargement of the European Union

With the end of the Second World War in May 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.

Between 1989 and 1991, 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 Phare strategy was launched soon after to adapt more the structure of the Central and Eastern European countries (Pays d'Europe Centrale et Orientale (PECO)) 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.[3]

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.

Malta held a non-binding referendum on 8 March 2003; the narrow Yes-vote prompted a snap election on 12 April 2003 fought on the same question and after which the pro-EU Nationalist Party retained its majority and declared a mandate for accession.

Poland held a referendum on 7 and 8 June 2003: Voting Yes by a wide margin of about 77.5% with a turnout of around 59%

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.

European leaders met in Dublin for fireworks and a flag-raising ceremony at Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish presidential residence. At the same time, citizens across Ireland enjoyed a nationwide 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.[4]

Limerick, Ireland's third largest City, hosted Slovenia as one of ten Cities and Towns to individually welcome the ten accession countries. The then Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rop was Guest Speaker at a business luncheon hosted by Limerick Chamber.

¹ EU Association Agreement type: Europe Agreement for the states of the Fifth Enlargement.

Accession of Cyprus in EU 2004

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 every UN (and EU) member state except Turkey, 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 communities 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 excluding the British overseas territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia 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 2022. European Union membership forced the country to suspend its membership in the Non-Aligned Movement with Government of Cyprus insisting on maintaining close ties with the NAM.[12]

Accession of Poland in EU 2004

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 central European 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:

1. That candidate countries achieve stable institutions that guarantee democracy, legality, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.
2. That candidate countries have a working market economy, capable of competing effectively on EU markets.
3. That candidate countries are capable of accepting all the membership responsibilities, political, economic and monetary.

At the Luxembourg summit in 1997, the EU accepted the Commission's opinion to invite 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. Then, the Accession Treaty was signed in Athens on 16 April 2003 (Treaty of Accession 2003). After the ratification of that Treaty in the 2003 Polish European Union membership referendum, Poland and other 9 countries became the members of EU on 1 May 2004.

Eight of the 10 countries that joined the European Union during the 2004 enlargement are grouped together as the A8, sometimes also referred to as the EU8.[13] They are grouped separately from the other two states that joined Union in 2004, i.e. Cyprus and Malta, because of their relatively similar ex-Eastern block background, per capita income level, Human Development Index level, and most of all the geographical location in mainland Europe, where two other states from aforementioned 2004 batch are Mediterranean isles.[14][15]

These countries are:

• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Poland
• Slovakia
• Slovenia

According to BBC a particular reason for grouping the A8 countries was an expectation that they would be the origin for a new wave of increased migration to wealthier European countries.[15] They initially proved to be the origin of a new wave of migration, with many citizens moving from these countries to other states within the EU, later giving a way to newer EU members, like Romania, Bulgaria, and increasing migration from the southern Europe struck by the global financial crisis. In a limelight of Brexit, the attractiveness of United Kingdom, a market that used to hold the largest share in immigration from A8 states, has sharply declined, and number of EU citizens leaving UK has hit its record heights.[16]

A 2021 study in the Journal of Political Economy found that the 2004 enlargement had aggregate beneficial economic effects on all groups in both the old and new member states. The largest winners were the new member states, in particular unskilled labor in the new member states.[18]

A 2007 study in the journal Post-Soviet Affairs argued that the 2004 enlargement of the EU contributed to the consolidation of democracy in the new member states.[19] In 2009, Freie Universität Berlin political scientist Thomas Risse wrote, "there is a consensus in the literature on Eastern Europe that the EU membership perspective had a huge anchoring effects for the new democracies."[20]