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
A8 countries A8 countries The A8 countries, also referred to as the EU8, are a group of eight of the 10 countries that joined the European Union during its 2004 enlargement. They are commonly grouped together separately from the other two states that joined in 2004, Cyprus and Malta, because of their relatively lower per capita income levels in comparison to the EU average. The countries were: A particular reason for grouping the A8 countries was an expectation that they would be the origin for a new wave of increased migration to wealthier European countries. They subsequently did prove to be the