Luxembourg · 25th anniversary of the 2004 EU enlargement

The enlargement of 1 May 2004 was the largest admission of new member states in the history of the European Union. At that time, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus joined the Union. This incorporated states from Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean region into the common European legal and economic order.

This was preceded by many years of accession negotiations. The conditions for admission included stable democratic institutions, respect for the rule of law and human rights, a functioning market economy and the ability to assume the obligations of membership. The acceding countries therefore had to adapt their laws and administrations in many areas to the rules of the European Union.

Politically, the enlargement was connected with the end of the division of Europe. States that had previously belonged to different political and economic systems were brought into closer union. For the new member states, accession opened up access to the European single market and participation in the common institutions. At the same time, the composition of the European Union was permanently changed.

Luxembourg is one of the six states that signed the Treaties of Rome in 1957, thereby founding the European Economic Community. As a founding member, it participated in the development of European integration. The choice of the occasion therefore refers to a step through which the political project of European unification developed further in geographical and institutional terms.