Romania became a member of the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2007. Entry was long expected and highly desired by the government, civil society, and population at large. The entire accession process that started in June 1995, when Romania applied for the EU membership, was long and tedious, a struggle for integration with both progress and digress in timely meeting the EU requirements. Nevertheless, the Brussels European Summit (16-17 December 2004) endorsed the closure of negotiations and:

noted with satisfaction that progress made by Romania in implementing the acquis and commitments entered into as regards, in particular, Justice and Home Affairs and Competition, has made possible to close formally all the outstanding chapters with Romania on 14 December 2004 and accordingly looked forward to welcoming it as a member from January 2007. 1

(European Commission, EU-Romania relations)

Along the same lines, the European Council also considered that:

Romania will be able to assume all the obligations of membership at the envisaged time of its accession, provided that it continues its efforts to that end and completes in a successful and timely way all necessary reforms and commitments undertaken in all areas of the acquis , in particular the important commitments regarding Justice and Home Affairs, Competition and Environment. 2

(European Commission, EU-Romania relations)

The 2007 welcome also marked the developments undertaken by postcommunist Romania from an authoritarian regime and almost economic collapse, to a functioning democracy and market economy. Although there are still various political, economic, and social domains that need to be further

reformed in order to include Romania among the list of established democracies, its accession was a sign of recognition of the efforts conducted so far, as well as acceptance into the ‘European family’ by the rest of the member states. Romania’s entry increased the number of the EU members to 27 (Bulgaria joined at the same time) and it also ended the process of Eastern enlargement launched at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 (Papadimitriou and Phinnemore 2008 ).