EU Eastward Enlargement
Many new countries were admitted to the EU during the past years. From Countryaah, you can read why this is the case and which it is here.
Youngsters for Europe – the EU enlargement to the east
On May 1, 2004, 10 other countries were admitted to the European Union. The 10 countries are Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus. Since January 1, 2007, two other countries have joined the EU: Romania and Bulgaria.
You probably don’t know the name of some of these countries yet. This is because many countries have not been independent for a long time and until a few years ago were still grouped together in socialist communities such as the Soviet Union or Czechoslovakia. Some of these countries are also quite small with very few inhabitants (such as Malta).
Why is the eastward expansion called eastward expansion?
Very simple… Except for Malta, all new countries are in the east of Europe. On the map you can see where these countries are.
New money for everyone
An important goal of the EU is to support poorer countries that are members of the EU with money. The money has to be used, for example, to build roads, apartments or businesses in poor areas. Many countries that are new to the EU will get a lot of money from this regulation. In the years 2004 to 2006 alone, the 10 countries will receive a total of 40 billion euros. For the money, you could buy 5000 Playstations every day for 100 years.
There is always controversy in the EU about how much money is distributed. The countries of Luxembourg, Germany and Austria pay more money to the EU than they get back from it. That is why many people in these countries are not very happy if more countries come to the EU that need support.
| Country | Proportion of women in Parliament (percent) | Public Expenditure on Health Care Per Person (US Dollar) |
| Albania | 28 (2018) | 272 (2016) |
| Andorra | 32 (2018) | 3 835 (2016) |
| Armenia | 18 (2018) | 359 (2016) |
| Azerbaijan | 17 (2018) | 268 (2016) |
| Belgium | 38 (2018) | 4 149 (2016) |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 21 (2018) | 444 (2016) |
| Bulgaria | 24 (2018) | 612 (2016) |
| Cyprus | 18 (2018) | 1 634 (2016) |
| Denmark | 37 (2018) | 5,566 (2016) |
| Estonia | 27 (2018) | 1 185 (2016) |
| Finland | 42 (2018) | 4 117 (2016) |
| France | 40 (2018) | 4 263 (2016) |
| Georgia | 16 (2018) | 308 (2016) |
| Greece | 19 (2018) | 1,511 (2016) |
| Ireland | 22 (2018) | 4 759 (2016) |
| Iceland | 38 (2018) | 5,064 (2016) |
| Italy | 36 (2018) | 2 739 (2016) |
| Kosovo | – | – |
| Croatia | 19 (2018) | 884 (2016) |
| Latvia | 16 (2018) | 874 (2016) |
| Liechtenstein | 12 (2018) | – |
| Lithuania | 21 (2018) | 988 (2016) |
| Luxembourg | 28 (2018) | 6,271 (2016) |
| Northern Macedonia | – | – |
| Malta | 12 (2018) | 2 328 (2016) |
| Moldova | 23 (2018) | 171 (2016) |
| Monaco | 33 (2018) | 2 940 (2016) |
| Montenegro | 24 (2018) | 532 (2016) |
| Netherlands | 36 (2018) | 4 742 (2016) |
| Norway | 41 (2018) | 7 478 (2016) |
| Poland | 28 (2018) | 809 (2016) |
| Portugal | 35 (2018) | 1 801 (2016) |
| Romania | 21 (2018) | 476 (2016) |
| Russia | 16 (2018) | 469 (2016) |
| San Marino | 27 (2018) | 3,013 (2016) |
| Switzerland | 33 (2018) | 9,836 (2016) |
| Serbia | 34 (2018) | 494 (2016) |
| Slovakia | 20 (2018) | 1,179 (2016) |
| Slovenia | 24 (2018) | 1 834 (2016) |
| Spain | 39 (2018) | 2 390 (2016) |
| UK | 32 (2018) | 3 958 (2016) |
| Sweden | 46 (2018) | 5,711 (2016) |
| Czech Republic | 22 (2018) | 1 322 (2016) |
| Turkey | 17 (2018) | 469 (2016) |
| Germany | 31 (2018) | 4 714 (2016) |
| Ukraine | 12 (2018) | 141 (2016) |
| Hungary | 13 (2018) | 943 (2016) |
| Vatican City State | – | – |
| Belarus | 35 (2018) | 318 (2016) |
| Austria | 34 (2018) | 4 688 (2016) |
Europe – Europe idea
In ancient and medieval Europe, first and foremost, it was used as a geographical and mythological term. As a political slogan and as a call to form common fronts, the word Europe first appeared in the mid-1400s, when the fall of Constantinople in 1453 prompted Pope Pius II to urge Christians to rally as Europeans against the outsider Ottoman threat.
The great voyages of discovery in the 1400-1500-t. helped spread the notion that Europeans should have something in common with the rest of the world. Further political power then got the European idea first and foremost in the propaganda against internal enemies. Not least, the fear of French supremacy and overpowering lords like the sun king Louis 14 was through the 1600s. contributing to Europe becoming tantamount to freedom and self-determination.
Through 1700-t. the concept of Europe increasingly became the framework for historical and social science presentations, and at least the political elite in Europe felt more and more like Europeans. Comparative studies of European conditions such as Holberg’s Introduction to the Greatest European Realm’s Stories continued until these latter times (1711) and a large number of depictions of Europe of supposedly non-European origin, for example Montesquie’s Persian letters(1721), formed the basis for the European concept of the Enlightenment. Europe emerged in the 1700s literature with the greatest degree of course as the most civilized and enlightened part of the world. At the same time, the (self-) criticism of European conditions, of monotony and absolutism as well as cruelty and greed towards the more or less noble “others” were stronger than ever before or since.
The self-critical and self-critical Europe concepts of the 1700s were replaced by a more confident and less self-critical view over the following centuries. After the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, the cosmopolitan European consciousness of the Enlightenment gradually faded with the politically active elite and came under the shadow of various forms of national and nationalist self-understanding.
With the German author Novalis ‘ essay The Christianity or Europe of 1799, the European idea came to play a significant role as an alternative to national and nationalist projects. It emerged as a vision of overcoming and mutually recognizing national contradictions, as a reminder of a common cultural heritage despite the increasingly nationally organized diversity and as a cry for struggle that only by uniting forces could Europeans withstand the challenge of the new worlds in west and east, ie from what came after the Second World War to be called the superpowers.
The European crises, wars and revolutions through the 1800s and 1900s. has been accompanied by the constant invocation of common European heritage, culture and identity against old as new “barbaric” forces and challenges. However, the myriad essays, dissertations and journals on Europe from the last two hundred years have never reached any clarity or agreement on a chronological and geographical demarcation or definition. Historically, Europe’s beginnings include been associated with the Persian wars in 400 AD, Emperor Constantine’s synthesis of ancient and Christian values in 300 AD, the battle against Attila’s females in 400 AD, the coronation of Charles the Great in the year 800, the Crusades, the French Revolution or with the Napoleonic era. Geographically, it has never been possible to agree on whether Russia and England should be counted on the continent. In turn, values such as freedom and diversity, self-determination and individualism, enlightenment and universalism are once again the basic theme of most of the contributors to the European debate.
The European idea experienced its last boom when the European Union was a political and economic priority in Western Europe in the 1980s, while the European idea and the idea of a unified Central Europe were at least as high with the opposition in the eastern half of the continent. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the bipolar world order of 1989 has once again radically changed our way of talking about and being European.
