© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. The European Union (formerly the European Community)

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Primarily an ECONOMIC trade bloc to group European countries into the world’s largest trade power to compete with U.S., China, Japan, etc. What is the E.U.?

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. I. HISTORY The EU (European Union) was set up after WWII. In 1952, six original nations— West Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, and Belgium—formed an organization to promote free trade (eliminate tariffs) among member nations.

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. After several periods of enlargement (1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom; 1981: Greece; 1986: Spain and Portugal; 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden) totaled 15 Member States… …and then welcomed 10 new eastern and southern EU candidate countries in 2004 to bring total to 25.

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. TEN NEW NATIONS IN 2004 … Ten nations, including many from Eastern Europe and the former Yugoslavia, signed official accession treaties in April 2003 and joined the EU in May Those countries (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) had to meet fairly rigorous economic and political conditions for entry. Click map to learn more about these countries. Romania and Bulgaria were added in 2007 Not so lucky for Turkey, yet…

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

Yay! Croatia! Croatiay! 2013

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. CURRENT CANDIDATE COUNTRIES Albania Iceland Montenegro Serbia Macedonia Turkey Albania

© 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.