section_path: Enlargement/Recent EU member states
section_name: Recent EU member states
paragraph_text: Recent EU member states
  
  When a state joins the EU, they do not necessarily simultaneously become part of the EEA. They are obliged to apply separately, and an agreement between EEA member states must be signed and ratified to admit a new member.
  
  Following the 2004 enlargement of the EU, which saw Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia acceding to the EU on 1 May 2004, the EEA Enlargement Agreement was applied on a provisional basis to the 10 acceding countries as from the date of their accession to the EU while their EEA accession agreement was pending ratification by all EEA parties.
  
  On the other hand, following the 2007 enlargement of the EU, which saw Bulgaria and Romania acceding to the EU on 1 January 2007, an EEA Enlargement Agreement was not signed until 25 July 2007 and only provisionally entered into force on 1 August 2007. The agreement did not fully enter into force until 9 November 2011.
  
  Croatia is the newest EU member state, having joined on 1 July 2013. Croatia applied to join the EEA on 13 September 2012, with the agreement concluded on 20 November 2013. It was signed in April 2014 and provisionally applied until it officially entered into force on 19 February 2025.