From Tallinn to Ljubljana, emerging Europe is reaping the benefits of two decades of EU membership. But while even the region’s eurosceptics have no real intention of leaving the bloc, more could be done to sell the clear advantages of being part of the world’s largest single market.
It was the European Union’s largest ever expansion—the likes of which we will in all probability never see again. On May 1, 2004, ten countries (eight of which are in the emerging Europe region: Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia; the others were Cyprus and Malta) became members of the EU.
As a result of what was officially termed the fifth enlargement, the number of EU member states increased overnight from 15 to 25, the number of official languages from 11 to 21, while the bloc’s population increased by 75 million.
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