The European Union (EU) had its roots in the 1951 agreement by France, Germany and four other countries to pool natural resources, with the aim of ending "age-old rivalries".
The European Coal and Steel Community came into existence in July 1952. Moves to create a broader "common market" began with the creation of the European Economic Community, six years later.
The first enlargement took place in 1973 and the latest, the fifth and largest occurred in May 2004, when 10 new countries joined the club, eight of them former communist states from Central Europe. They were Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Nine countries are waiting in the wings to join the European Union. Please see the following link to view EU expansion between 1952 -2004.
Bulgaria and Romania have signed accession treaties and are set to join in 2007 or 2008;
the other 7 Balkan countries have been told they can join the EU one day, if they meet the criteria. These include democracy, the rule of law, a market economy and adherence to the EU's goals of political and economic union.
Albania is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest. It has not yet applied for membership.
Bosnia-Hercegovina is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.
Croatia wants to join by 2009, a goal which EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn describes as "ambitious but realistic", although Accession talks began seven months late, after Croatia convinced the EU it was doing its best to find war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina.
Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic) is expecting a possible target date to join the EU in 2012.
Montenegro, the EU halted Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) talks with the country in May 2006, because of Belgrade's failure to send former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic to be tried in The Hague for war crimes.
Serbia is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.
Turkey started accession talks on 3 October 2005. Turkey could complete them in 10 years, however, it failed to ratify the customs union extended with the EU to all new member states, including Cyprus, meaning its ports and airports remain closed to Cypriot traffic. This problem could derail the accession talks, which are expected to continue at least until 2014 even if all goes well.
