European Union member state

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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 six 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 under way 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.

List

State	Official name	Accession	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	Kingdom of the 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

European Union member state

List

See also

Lists of European Union member states