Belgium · 25th anniversary of the 2004 EU enlargement

The enlargement of 1 May 2004 included Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. It was the largest admission of new member states into the European Union to date.

It was preceded by accession negotiations, during which the applicant countries adapted their legislation and state structures to the rules of the European Union. The requirements included stable democratic institutions, the rule of law, the protection of minorities and a functioning market economy. Upon accession, the new member states adopted the European Union acquis, that is, the common legal standards and political obligations in force up to that point.

The enlargement changed Europe’s political and economic map. Several of the acceding states had belonged to the communist sphere of influence until the end of the Cold War. Their admission to the European Union therefore also represented the rapprochement of states that had previously been separated from one another by the division of Europe. At the same time, the enlargement brought different historical experiences, languages and political traditions into the common European institutions.

For Belgium, the subject has a direct connection with European integration. The country is one of the six states that founded the European integration process after the Second World War, and it is home to important institutions of the European Union. The issue therefore recalls a step that reorganised the Union geographically and politically and made visible its development from a Western European community into an association with member states from almost all parts of Europe.