European Union

In this article, the ‘old’ EU member states are the countries which constituted the EU until 1 May 2004: Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom and Sweden.

The countries referred to in this article as ‘new’ EU member states are Poland (joined the EU on 1 May 2004), Bulgaria and Romania (joined the EU on 1 January 2007).