ABSTRACT
The accession of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries presented the EU with its most formidable integration challenges since the formation of the European Economic Community. Much of the heavy lifting was done during the pre-accession period with political, institutional, economic and social reforms in the CEE Candidate Countries that were initiated or accelerated by the conditionalities involved in meeting the requirements of the acquis communautaire. The enlargement of the EU in 2004 to include eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe, together with Cyprus and Malta, was one of the most important ‘turning points’ in Cohesion Policy since the 1988 reform of the Structural Funds. The accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia (EU8), along with Cyprus and Malta, to the EU on 1 May 2004 constituted a major milestone in the development of the EU.
