History of the European Union since 2004 the decision on 31 March 2010 to abolish the Western European Union. In 2007, the fifth enlargement completed with the accession of Romania and Bulgaria on 1 January. 53 MEPs joined the Parliament along with two commissioners, for which two new posts were created in the Commission. The post created for the Romanian Commissioner was Multilingualism, which was criticised by some for its narrow scope. Negotiating process with Croatia as an official candidate country had been stalled for 10 months due to Slovenia's blockade of Croatia's EU accession, which was lifted in September 2009 after an agreement. Croatia has since
European Trade Union Confederation and the EU Semester The ETUC was established in 1973, to coordinate and represent workers and their trade unions at European level, and has grown as more countries have joined the EU. Its membership now goes beyond the 28 Member States. At present, the ETUC represents almost 45 million workers across Europe, belonging to 89 national trade union confederations from 39 European countries, and 10 European Industry Federations. Within the ETUC, the Women’s Committee and Youth Committee represent the interests of these two groups of members. The ETUC has set up UnionMigrantNet, with a network of trade union contact points