摘要：Over the history of the European Union, numerous steps have been taken to increase the foundation of adhering countries: from the first six to nine in 1973, up to the enlargement to twenty-five, which increased the population by approximately one-fifth, creating a market of more than 455 million people. In terms of territory and population size and the socio-economic characteristics of the new countries, this enlargement is not comparable to the four previous ones.
