when countries joined the european union?
1/1/1995 1/1/2007 1/1/1973 5/1/2004 3/25/1957
entailment
 In 1990 , after the fall of the Eastern Bloc , the former East Germany became part of the Community as part of a reunified Germany . With further enlargement planned to include the former communist states , as well as Cyprus and Malta , the Copenhagen criteria for candidate members to join the EU were agreed upon in June 1993 . 

entailment
 In 1973 , the Communities enlarged to include Denmark ( including Greenland , which later left the Community in 1985 , following a dispute over fishing rights ) , Ireland , and the United Kingdom . Norway had negotiated to join at the same time , but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum . In 1979 , the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held . 

entailment
 In February 1991 , Poland , Hungary , and the Czech Republic and Slovakia ( as Czechoslovakia ) formed the Visegrád Group to push for European integration under the European Union and NATO , as well as to conduct military reforms in line with NATO standards . Internal NATO reaction to these former Warsaw Pact countries was initially negative , but by the 1991 Rome summit in November , members agreed to a series of goals that could lead to accession , such as market and democratic liberalization , and that NATO should be a partner in these efforts . In subsequent years , wider forums for regional cooperation between NATO and its eastern neighbors were set up , including the North Atlantic Cooperation Council ( later the Euro @-@ Atlantic Partnership Council ) and the Partnership for Peace . 

entailment
 The predecessors of the European Union were not devised as a military alliance because NATO was largely seen as appropriate and sufficient for defence purposes . 22 EU members are members of NATO while the remaining member states follow policies of neutrality . The Western European Union , a military alliance with a mutual defence clause , was disbanded in 2010 as its role had been transferred to the EU . 

entailment
 Through successive enlargements , the European Union has grown from the six founding states — Belgium , France , West Germany , Italy , Luxembourg , and the Netherlands — to the current 28 . Countries accede to the union by becoming party to the founding treaties , thereby subjecting themselves to the privileges and obligations of EU membership . This entails a partial delegation of sovereignty to the institutions in return for representation within those institutions , a practice often referred to as " pooling of sovereignty " . 
