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E S AT I V E N T R E S E P F R O S E N° 34.00 O U H A N G I E L B

The The Member States

 Chronological overview of entries  Candidate Member States

1951 As soon as the European authorities have decided to examine The Six Founding Fathers (, the Federal Republic of the candidate membership status for a country, they conclude a , , , Luxemburg and the ) sign the stabilisation and association agreement with that country. (establishing the ECSC – the European Coal and Steel Community). The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia received the candidate membership 1973 status in December 2005. , Ireland and the enter into the European had entered into Community. an association agreement with EU in 1963 already,

1981 IS in order to form a . The country applied becomes the tenth SE member state. FI for EU membership in 1987. Accession negotiations 1986 NO started in october 2005. Apart from the general and enter into the EE European Community. conditions (compliance with LV the Criteria: DK respect for , 1995 LT democratic institutions,...), , and IE GB the EU also asks that Turkey become members of the NL PL DE recognizes the Republic of European Union. Following a BE LU CS offi cially. referendum, does not SK join the EU. FR AT HU CH was granted SI RO HR the candidate country status May 1st 2004 BA SR IT on December 17, 2010. Cyprus, , , ME XK BG MK The accession negotiations , , , ES AL PT started in June 2012. , , and GR TR the enter into was granted the EU MT the European Union. CY candidate status in March 2012. January 1st 2007 and become was granted the EU candidate status in March 2014. member of the European Union.

July 1st 2013 becomes EU Member State.

January 31st 2021 The United Kingdom leaves the European Union. The EU consists now of 27 Member States.  The Schengen Countries(1)  The Area

In 1995, the Schengen agreements entered into effect. These On January 1st 1999, the 11 countries of the Economic and agreements created an area without internal borders, known as Monetary Union (EMU) created the euro as their offi cial currency. the . Schengen allows the citizens to travel freely In 2001 Greece joined them as 12th EMU-member. On January 1st without having to pass border checks. As a countermeasure, 2002, the euro replaced the national currency of these countries. measures were being worked on in order to strengthen the controls Afterwards, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta, Slovakia, Estonia and Latvia at the outer borders of the Schengen area. Twenty-six countries also joined the euro area. Lithuania joined the euro zone on 1 belong to the Schengen area. January 2015. So the Euro zone now has 19 Member States.Thanks The Schengen countries have a common visa policy: a visa for one to the euro, people can travel almost all EU countries without Schengen country is valid for all Schengen countries. They also having to change money. cooperate in the fi elds of justice and police. In order to promote

IS IS SE SE FI FI

NO NO

EE EE

LV LV DK DK LT LT

IE GB IE GB PL NL PL NL DE DE BE BE CS LU CS LU SK SK FR AT FR AT HU CH HU CH LI RO SI RO SI HR HR BA BA SR IT SR IT ME ME XK BG XK BG MK MK ES AL ES AL PT PT GR TR GR TR

MT MT CY CY

The countries of the euro area have to reduce their budgetary EU and Schengen defi cit to 3% of their GDP (the so-called Maastricht standard). In EU, not (yet) Schengen accordance with the Stability Pact (1997), the euro countries draw EU, not Schengen up a stability program when entering the euro area. That contains Schengen, not EU the measures they will take on the middle-long term to balance their budgets as much as possible. In response to the fi nancial crisis of 2008, the EU reinforced its oversight of all Member the exchange of information between the Schengen countries, the States’ budgets. A package of measures (the ‘six-pack’, the ‘two Schengen Information System (SIS) is being developed. pack’ and a treaty on European governance) are intended to Since 1997, the Schengen agreements are part of the EU Treaty ensure that budgetary and economic policy match the objectives (2) and the so-called . However, a Schengen agreed at European level. This is all integrated into a chronological visa is not yet valid for Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Cyprus. framework known as . Ireland is not Schengen member but has the possibility to apply certain parts of the agreements. Northern Ireland left the EU as a part of the United Kingdom, but has been given a special status. , Norway, and are not EU Member States but take part in Schengen.

(1) Schengen is the city in Luxemburg where the agreement was signed. More information: (2) Acquis communautaire means: “the EU as it is”. The acquis contains all http://europa.eu/ treaties, laws and international agreements of the EU and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice. For more information: 01.04.2021 Belgian House of Representatives - Department for Public and , 1008 Brussels tel.: (32)(2)549 81 77 — e-mail: info@lachambre — www.lachambre.be