On the 1st of May 2004, the European Union changed forever. The so-called "Big Bang" enlargement welcomed a total of ten new member states at one go: eight from the Central and Eastern European region that had been behind the Iron Curtain until the opening of the Berlin Wall, plus Cyprus and Malta, who had also been accession candidates for some years already.
Twenty years later, it's a good moment to take stock of what has become of the expectations, fears and hopes in the countries concerned.
"Ideas in Europe", the weekly 5-minute podcast coordinated by Albrecht Sonntag and jointly produced by EU!radio and UACES, the University Association for Contemporary European Studies, celebrates this anniversary in a little series of editorials by colleagues from these formerly "new" and now well-established EU member states. In making personal memories overlap with a retrospective analysis, they provide very original first-hand insight.
More to come in the following weeks - just watch this space :
The first four of these podcasts are already online, in audio and text format. Check them out in clicking on the links below. Our thanks go to
- Natasza Styczyńska from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow Click here to listen
- Ramūnas Vilpišauskas from the University of Vilnius Click here to listen
- Petr Kaniok from Masaryk University in Brno Click here to listen
- Heiko Pääbo from the University of Tartu Click here to listen
European Union map of the 2004 enlargement - Europe_countries.svg: Júlio Reisderivative work: Kolja21, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
