section_path: History/Treaty of Lisbon and Brexit (2004 – present)
section_name: Treaty of Lisbon and Brexit (2004 – present)
paragraph_text: Treaty of Lisbon and Brexit (2004 – present)
  
  In 2007, Bulgaria and Romania became EU members. Later that year, Slovenia adopted the euro, followed by Cyprus and Malta in 2008, Slovakia in 2009, Estonia in 2011, Latvia in 2014, Lithuania in 2015, and Croatia in 2023.
  
  On 1 December 2009, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force and reformed many aspects of the EU. In particular, it changed the legal structure of the European Union, merging the EU three pillars system into a single legal entity provisioned with a legal personality, created a permanent president of the European Council, the first of which was Herman Van Rompuy, and strengthened the position of the high representative of the union for foreign affairs and security policy.
  
  In 2012, the EU received the Nobel Peace Prize for having "contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy, and human rights in Europe". In 2013, Croatia became the 28th EU member.
  
  From the beginning of the 2010s, the cohesion of the European Union has been tested by several issues, including a debt crisis in some of the eurozone countries, a surge in asylum seekers in 2015, and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU. A referendum in the UK on its membership of the European Union was held in 2016, with 51.9 per cent of participants voting to leave. The UK formally notified the European Council of its decision to leave on 29 March 2017, initiating the formal withdrawal procedure for leaving the EU; following extensions to the process, the UK left the European Union on 31 January 2020, though most areas of EU law continued to apply to the UK for a transition period which lasted until 31 December 2020.
  
  The early 2020s saw Denmark abolishing one of its three opt-outs and Croatia adopting the Euro.
  
  After the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU leaders agreed for the first time to create common debt to finance the European Recovery Program called Next Generation EU (NGEU).
  
  On 24 February 2022, after massing on the borders of Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces undertook an attempt for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The European Union imposed heavy sanctions on Russia and agreed on a pooled military aid package to Ukraine for lethal weapons funded via the European Peace Facility off-budget instrument.
  
  Next Generation EU (NGEU) is a European Commission economic recovery package to support the EU member states to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular those that have been particularly hard hit. It is sometimes styled NextGenerationEU and Next Gen EU, and also called the European Union Recovery Instrument. Agreed in principle by the European Council on 21 July 2020 and adopted on 14 December 2020, the instrument is worth €750 billion. NGEU will operate from 2021 to 2026, and will be tied to the regular 2021–2027 budget of the EU's Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The comprehensive NGEU and MFF packages are projected to reach €1824.3 billion.
  
  Preparing the Union for a new great enlargement is a political priority for the Union, with the goal of achieving 35 member states by 2030. Institutional and budgetary reforms are being discussed in order for the Union to be ready for the new members.
  
  In May 2024, concerns rise, that the outcome of the elections in June, can undermine some of the crucial policies of the EU in the domain of environment, diplomacy, economy. The war in Ukraine by creating inflation, lowering life level created a possibility of strong changes in the 2024 elections.