The EU began in the 1950s as the ‘European Communities'. There were six member states: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
They were joined by Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986. Reunification of Germany in 1990 brought in the East German Länder.
The EU was enlarged in 1995 to include Austria, Finland and Sweden. The 2004 enlargement brought in Cyprus, the CzechRepublic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are candidate countries.