User:Nightstallion/List of European Union member states by accession



This is a list of European Union member states, their dates of application and accession. It shows the growth of the European Union and its predecessors through enlargement from six members in 1952 to twenty-seven members in 2007; at least nine (possibly even more) are expected to join in its future.

The European Union per se was created on 1 November 1993 when the Treaty on European Union came into effect. Twelve of the current twenty-seven member states joined one of the Union's predecessors, either the European Coal and Steel Community (which came into existence on 23 July 1952 and ceased to exist exactly 50 years later ), the European Economic Community (which came into existence on 1 January 1958 ), or the European Community (which came into existence on 1 July 1967 as a merger of ECSC, EEC and the European Atomic Energy Community, and was one of the three pillars of the European Union until these were abolished with the Treaty of Lisbon on 1 December 2009).

Candidate countries


In addition to the current twenty-eight member states, a number of other countries are expected to join the European Union in the next two decades. Iceland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey are officially candidate countries; Iceland and Turkey are currently in accession negotiations, and negotiations with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia are expected to start soon. The remaining states in the Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo) are officially "potential candidate countries", which means they have a clear perspective for accession over the course of the next decade. Albania and Serbia have submitted an application for membership, but have not yet been officially recognised as candidate countries.

Countries that failed to join or left


Not all accession attempts have been successful, though, and on one occasion a territory even left the European Union (then European Community).
 * While Norway had completed European Community/European Union accession negotiations twice already (with the proposed accession dates having been 1 January 1973 and 1 January 1995, respectively), the accession failed both times when the Norwegians rejected membership in referendums (on 25 September 1972 and 28 November 1994 ).
 * The Danish autonomous territory of Greenland initially joined the European Community together with Denmark, but left on 1 February 1985 after it had acquired home rule and had held a referendum on the issue.
 * Morocco applied to join in 1987, but was rejected by the European Council because it was not considered a European country and therefore not eligible to join. (Interestingly, the Copenhagen criteria had not yet been formally agreed upon at that time.)
 * Although Switzerland applied to join in 1992, it froze its application after accession to the European Economic Area was rejected in a referendum on 6 December 1992.

Future prospects



 *  This section is incomplete. You can help by adding information about the current situation in the European microstates Monaco and Vatican City, as well as in associated territories. 

It is generally assumed that even with the accession of the states of southeastern Europe, the process of enlargement will not be finished.


 * European countries

Armenia, Georgia, Moldova,  San Marino  and Ukraine    have stated they would like to join the European Union; however, the European Union's response was mostly lukewarm. European Union membership is also the subject of political debate in Andorra, Azerbaijan, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Liechtenstein, and the debates in Norway and Switzerland are also still ongoing. While Belarus and Russia are also seen as eligible to join, and while accession to the European Union enjoys public support in Belarus, the lack of democratic structures makes these countries' accession impossible in the short term, especially as the European Union is supporting the Belarusian opposition and civil society in peacefully overthrowing Alexander Lukashenko's regime, which it regards as dictatorial, going so far as to offer concrete benefits for democratic reforms. Furthermore, the European Union is trying to bind Russia more strongly to its own policies and goals through partnership and cooperation agreements.


 * Non-European countries

Although the Treaty of Maastricht states that only European countries may apply, a number of countries not generally considered European have also considered membership bids.

The island nation of Cape Verde, part of the island region Macaronesia (which is comprised of Cape Verde, the Portuguese islands of the Azores and Madeira and the Spanish Canary Islands) has stated it wishes to join the European Union. Israel has considered applying for membership; while the European Union and Israel share a common culture, history and society, the ongoing Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts and Israel's location in one of the most conflict-ridden regions of the world would be major arguments against its accession. Finally, even Canada's accession has occasionally been proposed, though often rather in a tongue-in-cheek manner; the main arguments used are the very similar cultural standards and viewpoints on matters of international law, especially when juxtaposed with those of the United States. None of the three countries is a member of the Council of Europe, which is a de facto prerequisite for membership under the Copenhagen criteria and the Treaty of Maastricht.


 * Likely next enlargement

It is generally expected that the states of southeastern Europe will be the next states to join the European Union, and that neither the developed countries which are not members of the Union (Norway, Switzerland and the microstates) nor the three countries in eastern Europe (Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine) will join in the foreseeable future. Although Olli Rehn said on 19 May 2006 that he expected Iceland to join the European Union before Croatia would, he went back on his statement when he stated on 1 December 2006 that Croatia would likely become the European Union's 28th member state; he repeated this statement on 11 October 2007, with the comment that "[t]he only surprise could be Iceland, if they soon apply for membership" – which they did on 17 July 2009. Croatia joined on 1 July 2013.