When did negotiations begin on the enlargement of the EU in 2004?

On 1 May 2004 the EU took in ten new Member States, and its circle of membership was enlarged from 15 to 25 countries. In terms of population, this means an increase from around 380 million to 457 million EU citizens (see also question 98), and more enlargements are planned.

The first major official step in 2004 round of enlargements was taken at the European Council meeting in Copenhagen in 1993, when the Heads of State and Government agreed on a number of political and economic conditions which the countries seeking to join the EU had to meet in order to become members – the so-called Copenhagen criteria.

The next major step was the European Council meeting in Luxembourg in December 1997. At that meeting, eleven of the thirteen applicant countries were approved as candidate countries (see table in question 25 for date of application), and it was decided that an accession process be launched for the benefit of these countries. The two countries which were not approved as candidate countries were Turkey and Malta . Turkey, according to the EU, was not ready, and Malta had suspended its application in 1996 but reactivated it in 1998.

In addition, it was decided that in 1998 the EU should open concrete negotiations for the accession of six of the eleven candidate countries, namely Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia .

Although no decision was taken to initiate actual negotiations with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Romania, the decision at the Luxembourg summit meant that relations between the EU and these countries should be strengthened so that negotiations could be initiated as soon as possible. At the European Council meeting in Helsinki in December 1999, it was thus decided that concrete negotiations should also be opened with these five countries plus Malta, which had renewed its application in September 1998.

At the summit in Helsinki in 1999, Turkey was also recognised as a candidate country but no concrete accession negotiations were started with Turkey, since Turkey did not yet meet the Copenhagen criteria, which is a condition for the commencement of accession negotiations.

At the European Council meeting in Copenhagen on 12-13 December 2002, the EU concluded accession negotiations with Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary.

These countries then became Member States of the EU on 1 May 2004, most of them having held referendums.

As regards Romania and Bulgaria , it was concluded at the meeting that the EU would endeavour to welcome these countries as members of the EU in 2007. Both Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007.

As regards Turkey, it was decided at the European Council meeting in Copenhagen in December 2002 that the EU would initiate accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the European Council decided at its meeting in December 2004, on the basis of a report and a recommendation from the Commission, that Turkey met the Copenhagen criteria.

The Commission published its report on 6 October 2004 recommending accession negotiations with Turkey . However, the Commission laid down a number of control mechanisms and recommended a clause which would make it possible to break off negotiations if Turkey did not respect human rights. Accession negotiations with Turkey ware opened on 3 October 2005. On this date accession negotiations were also opened with Croatia. Croatia applied for membership in 2003.