EU Expansion: Romania, Bulgaria Newest Members
February 1, 2007
Romania and its southern neighbor Bulgaria have become the newest members of the European Union, officially joining the bloc on January 1, 2007.
The addition of the two countries brings 30 million more people to the EU and expands the number of member states to twenty-seven.
At the same time, Slovenia has become the latest country to join the euro zone, in a move that Prime Minister Janez Jansa has called the “biggest national achievement” since the tiny nation of 2 million joined the EU in 2004.
Meanwhile, in December, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, UNMIK/Kosovo, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania signed the expanded Central European Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in Bucharest.
The FTA consolidates 32 existing bilateral FTAs, assists non-World Trade Organization (WTO) countries to prepare for membership, and leads to the closer economic cooperation that will facilitate accession to the European Union.
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