In other words, NATO membership, like EU membership, comes at a price.

2005 2010 Growth continued in the first years of the EU membership.

Surveys indicate that the Irish are strong supporters of EU membership and the integration process.

It also moves Serbia closer to European Union membership.

The EU needs a comprehensive regional approach, focusing on the remaining steps that would lead each country towards membership.

Today, ten former communist nations are fully integrated members of the European Union.

Following the enlargement of the European Union, thirteen Republican organizations from all the monarchies of the EU on 1 May 2004, sent a petition to the European Parliament.

Membership in the European Union has resulted in the proliferation of ties to Europe at many levels, as well as a major influx of EU money.

Many citizens of France s 24 partners in the European Union, or of states that aspire to enter the EU soon, are angry indeed, indignant at France s rejection of the European Union s constitutional treaty.

Spain, Portugal, and Greece had to establish functioning democracies before applying for EU membership.

Of course, EU membership gives these countries a greater sense of security.

Slovenia is in the European Union, Croatia is very close to membership, and all of the region s other countries have started along the EU path.

Beyond membership in the European Union, France is also involved in many joint European projects such as Airbus, the Galileo positioning system and the Eurocorps.

Nevertheless, Cyprus became an EU member but only the Greek part.

Yet this historical evidence is not enough to unite European sentiment in favor of Turkey s EU membership.

Now, it is up to the British public to think deeply about the benefits and sacrifices implicit in EU membership.

There was also a strong suspicion that the French were trying to find a way to buy off Turkey with a relationship falling well short of European Union membership.

Most notably, the United Kingdom is seeking to renegotiate the terms of its EU membership, with a referendum on the outcome that will determine whether it leaves the EU altogether.

But the road to EU membership involves painful sacrifice, so each country should be judged on its own merits.

That was why he had urged the European Union to consider the prospect of eventual accession to it of all parts of the former Yugoslavia.

Indeed, since 1991, the West has offered Russia extensive co operation with the European Union and NATO, as well as membership of the Council of Europe and the G 8.

While the Bush administration largely turned its back on Bosnia, the EU became deeply engaged EU membership has been the critical lever for pressing reforms in Bosnia since it was made policy in 2003.

Indeed Irish ministers argue that Ireland would have gone the way of Iceland in recent months were it not for EU membership and the protections afforded by euro zone membership.

Polish Prime Minister Lezsek Miller resigned one day after his country's official admission to the EU.

So the EU s promise of membership simply has to be credible if accession driven reforms are to succeed and EU norms internalized in applicant states.

Although the Association Agreement does not lead automatically to EU membership, it is an important step in that direction.

Europe thus ends up losing, and the true benefits of EU membership are not fully realized.

In short, EU membership entails having to accept incisive measures that deeply affect a state s internal affairs.

Serbia officially applied for membership in the European Union on 22 December 2009, and received candidate status on 1 March 2012, following a delay in December 2011.

Activities should continue to focus on promoting subregional and regional cooperation and cross border dialogue with European Union States, particularly in the context of European Union enlargement.

Worse yet, Greek Cyprus joined the EU literally days after it spurned the will of the international community, while the EU reneged on its promises to end the Turkish community s isolation if it supported Annan s plan.

Turkey also showed its good will over Cyprus, removing a nagging political obstacle to EU membership.

Turkey was wholly unjustified in blockading a neighbouring country after being granted a mandate for European Union membership negotiations.

As for most of the countries of the former Soviet Union, which remain stuck in transit, EU membership is not in the cards for North Africa and the Middle East.

If for now a democratic Serbia prefers radical nationalism and alignment with Russia to membership in the EU and NATO, so be it.

The sunny climate of the eastern Mediterranean draws a steady stream of tourists, and European Union membership in the south has pushed income levels for Greek Cypriots higher than the EU average.

Ukraine needs the discipline of the accession process and thus the promise of EU membership if reforms are to be implemented effectively.

When the European Council opened the way for Turkish membership in 1999, it fully took into account the establishment of the European (political) Union by the Maastricht Treaty years earlier.

We awaited that development with anticipation, and we are particularly pleased that the road to Croatia's full European Union membership is now wide open.

But it is also true that the northern Turkish part of Cyprus is denied access to free trade and other benefits from EU membership.

And if the EU s hugely expanded membership were to stand in the way of a future federal state, this might not be such a bad thing.

Decides to admit the Swiss Confederation to membership in the United Nations.

One lesson is that unity is not an option it is a condition sine qua non of the EU s economic prosperity and political relevance. It is remarkable that since 2004, when I became President of the European Commission, the EU s membership has nearly doubled, from 15 countries then to 28 now.

But his strategy renegotiation of EU membership, followed by a British referendum on the new agreement is the product of two illusions first, that he can ensure a positive outcome, and, second, that the EU is able and willing to give him the concessions that he wants.

At the same time, the political parties that led their countries into the EU all came under pressure, because they were associated with painful reforms.