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Which countries are members of the EU and when did they become members?

The EU currently consists of the twenty-eight Member States listed below. The year in which they became Member States is shown to the right.

EU Member States
Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg 1952
Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom 1973
Greece1981
Spain and Portugal 1986
Austria, Finland and Sweden 1995
The Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia 2004
Bulgaria and Romania2007
Croatia2013

Accession negotiations with Turkey were opened in October 2005, with Iceland in 2010 and with Montenegro in 2012. Furthermore, Macedonia (FYROM) and Serbia have applied for membership.

‘The forgotten enlargement’
When East and West Germany were reunited with effect from 3 October 1990, the former East Germany became part of the EC since West Germany was already a Member State of the EC. This is also referred to as the ‘forgotten enlargement’, since in effect it brought around 20 million new citizens into the EU.