Today the EU celebrates 20 years since the last major enlargement and preparing the next one – Economy – SAPO.pt

On May 1, 2004, ten new member states entered the bloc: Cyprus, Malta, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovenia.

On the eve of the anniversary, the Czech Republic’s European Commissioner, Vera Jourová, acknowledged that the day of official accession was the third happiest day of her life, after the birth of her two children and obtaining her driving license.

“The first day in the Union brought a very important feeling (…) and we were absolutely convinced that by being part of this EU club, the Czech Republic would become stronger, safer and richer”, Jourová said at a conference press in Brussels on Tuesday, after a meeting of European officials responsible for General Affairs and in which seven of those aspiring to join the EU in a future enlargement participated in a debate dedicated to the rule of law.

Today marks the 20th anniversary, but the celebrations were brought forward because of the Labor Day holiday, namely with the raising, on Tuesday, of the flags of the then new Member States.

The celebrations take place in preparation for the next opening to new countries, with candidates and Member States working towards this end, the former striving to comply with all requirements and the latter studying the necessary changes to the operating rules.

On Monday, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, defended that EU enlargement is a “cornerstone” of the community bloc’s “sovereignty strategy”, warning candidate countries and European institutions of “a lot of work to do” .

“We must be ready — on both sides — by 2030 for enlargement. For the candidate countries, this means carrying out the necessary reforms and resolving all bilateral disputes. On the EU side, it means reforming our programs and budgets, and our decision-making”, stressed Charles Michel, in a statement released on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the last major enlargement of the community bloc.

On the same note, the leader recalled that this was “a transformative event” for the European continent.

After the 2004 enlargement, Bulgaria and Romania also joined in 2007, and Croatia in 2013, with the United Kingdom leaving the EU in 2020, which currently has 27 member states.

The twentieth anniversary is marked with eyes on the next enlargement — an ambition accelerated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — and with ten countries waiting again.

Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia are officially candidate countries for membership, joining Kosovo, which submitted the application in 2022, but whose independence is not recognized by five EU Member States (Spain, Romania, Greece, Slovakia and Cyprus).

Portugal has belonged to the EU since June 12, 1985.

IG (DMC) // SCA

Lusa/End