A historic date for Europe

Today, 10 new members have joined the EU. Probably the most important event since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We should all welcome the new members.

Day of welcome for EU newcomers

The EU is now the world’s largest trading bloc
Leaders from the EU’s 25 member states are taking part in celebrations, after a night of festivities heralded its historic expansion.
The 15 old members welcomed in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia at midnight.

The focus is now on Ireland, holder of the EU presidency, where a flag-raising ceremony is to take place.

Irish PM Bertie Ahern “extended the hand of friendship” to the new members.

Speaking at Dublin Castle, where he was to begin the day’s events at a prayer ceremony, Mr Ahern hailed a “day of hope and opportunity”.

The bloc’s expansion was the “closure of one chapter in European history and the opening of another” he said.

European Commission President Romano Prodi, also at Dublin Castle, said it was an “historic and joyous day”.

Joy and uncertainty

With a population of 455m, the EU now is the world’s biggest trading bloc.

ENLARGEMENT NUMBERS
10 new countries (up to 25)
74 million people (up to 455m)
444bn euro of extra GDP
(up to 9,613bn)
738,573 sq km of territory
(up to 4m sq km)

Key facts on new states
How much the EU costs

Hundreds of thousands packed city squares in the newcomer states to watch fireworks and hear Beethoven’s Ode to Joy – the EU’s official anthem.

The BBC’s Tim Franks says some enthusiasts are describing the enlargement as a millennial event, comparable to the creation of great empires.

Many of the 10 new members are poor with young institutions of state and they see the promise of Europe-wide stability and eventual enrichment.

Reporters’ log
The night in pictures
European press jubilant

This is a hugely significant day for Europe, our correspondent says, but it is nowhere near the end of the story.

In the existing member states, there is more uncertainty over immigration, over the new balance of forces within the EU and over whom the club should admit next.

Ireland has mounted its biggest security operation since Pope John Paul II visited in 1979 in preparation for the celebrations.

More than 5,000 officers will be on duty this weekend and 1,000 of those will be positioned in riot gear at four different parts of the city to police anti-capitalist protests.

Eight of the new members are former communist states, joining the Western club only 15 years after most of them emerged from years of Soviet domination. Some were not even separate countries until just over a decade ago.

Now all their governments have satisfied Brussels that their economies, legal systems and democracies are ready for EU membership.

‘No war again’

The other two new members – Malta and Cyprus – are Mediterranean islands.

But Cypriot membership is being overshadowed by the exclusion of the island’s Turkish Cypriot part, following an inconclusive referendum on reunification a week ago.

One of the fathers of European reunification, former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, spoke through tears when he addressed thousands at a ceremony in the German town of Zittau, which borders both Poland and the Czech Republic.