Central and Eastern Europe Soviet Union; the independent states in former Yugoslavia (which were not considered part of the Eastern bloc); and the three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (which chose not to join the CIS with the other 12 former republics of the USSR). The CEE countries are further subdivided by their accession status to the European Union (EU): the eight first-wave accession countries that joined the EU on 1 May 2004 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Slovenia), the two second-wave accession countries that joined on 1 January 2007 (Romania and Bulgaria) and the third-wave accession country that
Accession of Macedonia to the European Union conflicting views about the two countries' shared 19th- and 20th-century history and the ethnic separateness of the two nations. Bulgaria joined the EU on 1 January 2007. In July 2006, Bulgarian foreign minister Ivaylo Kalfin and president Georgi Parvanov stated that Bulgaria's support for Macedonian membership might not be unconditional, citing concerns over negative and aggressive attitudes against Bulgaria and Bulgarian history fostered by the Macedonian authorities. Defiant answers were reported from the Macedonian political leadership. In October 2012, the European Commission recommended for the fourth consecutive year that membership negotiations with Macedonia be launched. On each previous occasion the