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A 'European Union member state' is any one of the twenty-seven countries that have joined the European Union (EU) since its inception in 1958 as the European Economic Community (EEC). From an original membership of six states, there have been five successive enlargements, the largest occurring on 1 May 2004, when ten member states joined.
Following the addition of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, the EU's membership now stands at twenty-seven. Negotiations are also underway with a number of other states. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. However, this term is also used to refer to the intensification of cooperation between EU member states as national governments allow for the gradual centralising of power within European institutions. Before being allowed to join the European Union, a state must fulfil the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria: these basically require that a candidate member state must enjoy a secular, democratic system of government, together with the corresponding freedoms and institutions, and respect the rule of law. Under the terms of the Treaty on European Union, enlargement of the Union is conditional upon the agreement of each existing member state as well as approval by the European Parliament.
Bulgaria and Romania comprise the second part of the EU's fifth enlargement, and joined the EU on 1 January 2007. This date was agreed upon at the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, confirmed at Brussels on 18 June 2004, and affirmed by the country reports of October 2004 and the final report delivered on 26 September 2006. Bulgaria and Romania signed their Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005 at a ceremony held at Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg.

Contents

List of member states

See also

Lists of European Union member states

List of member states

The 27 member-states of the European Union

Flag	State	Official name	Accession	Population	Capital	MEPs
	Austria	Republic of Austria			Vienna	18
	Belgium	Kingdom of Belgium			Brussels	24
	Bulgaria	Republic of Bulgaria			Sofia	18
	Cyprus	Republic of Cyprus			Nicosia	6
	Czech Republic	Czech Republic			Prague	24
	Denmark	Kingdom of Denmark	2		Copenhagen	14
	Estonia	Republic of Estonia			Tallinn	6
	Finland	Republic of Finland			Helsinki	14
	France	French Republic			Paris	78
	Germany	Federal Republic of Germany	1		Berlin	99
	Greece	Hellenic Republic			Athens	24
	Hungary	Republic of Hungary			Budapest	24
	Ireland	Ireland			Dublin	13
	Italy	Italian Republic			Rome	78
	Latvia	Republic of Latvia			Riga	9
	Lithuania	Republic of Lithuania			Vilnius	13
	Luxembourg	Grand Duchy of Luxembourg			Luxembourg	6
	Malta	Republic of Malta			Valletta	5
	Netherlands	Netherlands			Amsterdam	27
	Poland	Republic of Poland			Warsaw	54
	Portugal	Portuguese Republic			Lisbon	24
	Romania	Romania			Bucharest	35
	Slovakia	Slovak Republic			Bratislava	14
	Slovenia	Republic of Slovenia			Ljubljana	7
	Spain	Kingdom of Spain			Madrid	54
	Sweden	Kingdom of Sweden			Stockholm	19
	United Kingdom	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland			London	78

See also

★ Special member state territories

★ Enlargement

★ Bordering countries

Lists of European Union member states

★ by accession ★ by political system

★ by population ★ by Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

★ by area