Introduction
This is a list of European Union member states, meant to showcase the growth of the European Union and its predecessors through enlargement from six members in 1952 to twenty-seven members in 2007/8, and more in its future.
The European Union per se was created on 1 November 1993 when the Treaty of Maastricht came into effect.[1] Twelve of the current 25 member states joined one of the Union's predecessors, either the European Coal and Steel Community (which came into existence on 23 July 1952[2] and ceased to exist exactly 50 years later[3]), the European Economic Community (which came into existence on 1 January 1958[4]), or the European Community (which came into existence on 1 July 1967 as a merger of ECSC, EEC and Euratom[5], and is one of the three pillars of the European Union today).
In addition to the current twenty-five member states, a number of other European states will join the European Union in the next two decades (see enlargement of the European Union). Bulgaria and Romania have already finished accession negotiations; the official decision on their date of joining (either 1 January 2007 or 1 January 2008) will be taken in May 2006 during the Austrian presidency of the European Union.[6] Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are currently in various stages of the accession negotiations process[7], while the remaining states in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro) are officially "potential candidate states", which means they have a clear perspective for accession over the course of the next decade.[8]
██ current members
██ acceding countries
██ candidate countries
██ potential candidate countries
██ application frozen
██ application rejected by EC
██ accession rejected in a referendum
Four more regions warrant mentioning here:
Listed by accession date
| # |
State |
Accession |
Special territories |
| 1 |
 Belgium |
23 July 1952 (ECSC)
1 January 1958 (EEC) |
|
 France |
incl. French Guiana, Guadeloupe¹, Martinique, Réunion
excl.  French Polynesia, New Caledonia,  Wallis and Futuna
excl. French Southern Territories, Mayotte, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon |
 Italy |
|
 Luxembourg |
|
 Netherlands |
excl.  Aruba, the  Netherlands Antilles² |
 West Germany |
|
| 7 |
 Denmark |
1 January 1973 (EC) |
excl. the  Faroe Islands,  Greenland (see note above) |
 Ireland |
|
 United Kingdom |
incl.  Gibraltar
excl.  Guernsey,  Jersey, the  Isle of Man
excl.  Akrotiri and Dhekelia³
excl.  Bermuda
excl.  Anguilla, the  British Virgin Islands, the  Cayman Islands,  Montserrat, the  Turks and Caicos Islands
excl. the  Falkland Islands, the  Pitcairn Islands,  Saint Helena
excl. the  British Indian Ocean Territory,  South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
| 10 |
 Greece |
1 January 1981 (EC) |
|
| 11 |
 Portugal |
1 January 1986 (EC) |
|
 Spain |
|
| N/A |
 East Germany† |
3 October 1990 |
|
| 13 |
 Austria |
1 January 1995 |
|
 Finland |
incl.  Åland |
 Sweden |
|
| 16 |
 Cyprus‡ |
1 May 2004 |
excl. Akrotiri and Dhekelia³,  Northern Cyprus, the  UN Buffer Zone |
 Czech Republic |
|
 Estonia |
|
 Hungary |
|
 Latvia |
|
 Lithuania |
|
 Malta |
|
 Poland |
|
 Slovakia |
|
 Slovenia |
|
| TBC |
 Bulgaria |
1 January 2007/08 |
|
 Romania |
|
| TBD |
 Croatia |
in accession negotiations |
|
 Turkey |
|
 Macedonia |
candidate country |
|
 Albania |
potential candidate country |
|
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
|
 Serbia and Montenegro |
|
- Notes
- † East Germany joined the EC through German reunification and not as a separate state.[12]
- ‡ Officially, the whole island is part of the EU and Turkish Cypriots are EU citizens. Since the Greek Cypriot side rejected the Annan Plan for the reunification of the southern part and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in a referendum on 24 April 2004, however, EU law is only applied in the southern part currently. Had the referendum been in favour on both sides of the island, Cyprus, Northern Cyprus and the UN Buffer Zone would have joined the European Union together as the
United Cyprus Republic.
- ¹ The communes of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin decided (in a referendum held on 7 December 2003) to become separate overseas collectivities. This change will be implemented in early 2007; it is currently unknown whether they will remain part of the European Union or become associated territories like Mayotte.[13]
- ² The Netherlands Antilles will be restructured on 1 July 2007. Curaçao and Sint Maarten will become countries inside the Kingdom of the Netherlands (together with Aruba and the Netherlands per se). Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius will become part of the Netherlands as the Kingdom Islands, and will thereby also become part of the European Union.[14]
- ³ The UK Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus did not join the European Union when the United Kingdom joined. Cyprus' Accession Treaty specifically stated that this would not change with the accession of Cyprus to the European Union.
Listed by application date
References
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1993 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1952 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 2002 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1958 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1967 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1972 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1994 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1985 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ The History of the European Union – 1990 (2005). European Commission. Retrieved 18 January 2006.
- ↑ Law, Gwillim (2005). "Arrondissements of Guadeloupe". Retrieved 21 February 2006.
- ↑ Law, Gwillim (2005). "Netherlands Antilles". Retrieved 21 February 2006.
The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_member_states under GFDL
