When did all the counties join the EU?

Answer 1

France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg constitute the "Inner Six" countries, the founder countries of the European Coal and Steel Community, the predecessor of European Union. Then, the UK, Denmark and Ireland joined in 1973, the first enlargement. Norway had also completed negotiations but did not eventually joined as a result of a popular vote. Though, these four countries had previously applied two times (first in 1962 and then in 1967), but, because of the French veto on the British application, they were not successful.

In the 80s, the second (Greece, 1981) and third enlargement (Portugal and Spain, 1986) took place, which together constitute the Mediterranean enlargements. These three southern countries had just emerged from dictatorship. Greece applied in 1975, Portugal and Spain in 1977. Although, Greece was the first country to sign an Association Agreement with the European Community in 1961 (applied for in 1958). In the meantime, Greenland (part of Denmark) withdraws, while Morocco and Turkey apply; the first was turned down and the second was considered eligible. (Turkey hasn't yet joined, though)

In the 90s, three more states join the club; Austria, Finland, Sweden, all in 1995, the fourth enlargement. Austria applied in 1989, Sweden in 1991 and Finland in 1992. Along with them, Norway would try again, unsuccessfully, as the accession was turned down by a popular vote again. During this period, Switzerland got also interested in joining the block (submit application in 1992), although accession rejected in a referendum. In the meantime, the two island countries, Cyprus and Malta, both applied in 1990, but did not join until 2004.

In the 2000s the Fifth or so-called Eastern Enlargement took place in two phases. In May 2004, 10 states became members of the EU: Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. While in 2007, two more states joined; Bulgaria and Romania. These enlargements grew the old EU-15 into the new EU-27. All these states had started forming ties with the EU after the fall of Communism and they all applied around mid-1990s, except for Cyprus and Malta.

In June 2013, Croatia will join the EU as the 28th Member. Now, the enlargement agenda includes mainly countries in the Western Balkans. There are three candidate states that are currently negotiating (Iceland, Montenegro and Turkey), two that have received candidate status but have not yet started negotiations (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia), one that has applied but have not yet been granted candidate status (Albania) and two further states that are officially considered eligible to apply, but have not yet done so (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kossovo [disputable]). In Iceland, although half of the negotiation process has been completed, people are against joining. Iceland applied in 2009 as an impact of the Global Recession. Montenegro applied in 2008 and negotiations have just started, while Turkey applied in 1987 only one chapter out of 35 has closed and 13 have opened. FYROM applied in 2004 and has been a candidate since 2005 but the process is frozen due to a dispute with an EU member (Greece). Serbia applied in 2009 and granted a candidate status in 2011. Albania applied in 2009 and in October 2012 the commission recommended to grant a candidate status, although not granted yet. Bosnia would submit an application in 2011 but has not yet done so, while the status of Kossovo as a sovereign state is disputed.

The EU is closely related to the EFTA countries (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Lichtenstein) and the Western European microstates (Andorra, Monaco, Vatican, San Marino), while eastern European countries have occasionally expressed their wish to join the Union someday (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova - Eastern Partneship countries). The EU is also closely cooperating with Mediterranean Union countries, as well, part of its wider neighbourhood policy.