Strategic Assessment
On April 16, 2003, fifteen member states of the European Union (EU) signed a treaty in Athens expanding the EU by another ten states, eight of which belonged to the former Eastern bloc ג€“ Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Together with Cyprus and Malta, these states will complete the process of their membership to the EU on May 1, 2004. The decision to expand the EU follows NATO’s decision at a conference held in Prague in November 2002 to invite seven countries from the former Eastern bloc – Estonia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Romania – to join the organization, with the intention of implementing this expansion in 2004. These states will join the three Eastern bloc countries, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, that became NATO members in 1999. Once these expansions are completed, the EU will comprise twenty-five member states and NATO twenty-six. Nineteen European countries will be members of both organizations.