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
Poland in the European Union Lithuania, Malta, Polish, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary) entering the European Union. On 1 May 2004 Poland became a full member of the European Union, along with 9 other European countries. According to information provided by the Ministry of Finance (on 8 February 2006), Poland had to be ready to join the eurozone by 2009, however, this was postponed to at least 2018. The Minister of Finance announced a regulation that, as of 15 April 2004, a consumer or a recipient of services is able to pay for their goods or services using euros. On 13 December 2007, the Reform Treaty