The following is a chronology of the EU:
1951: Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg form the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC).
1957: ECSC becomes the European Economic Community.
1962: EEC unveils its Common Agricultural Policy guaranteeing farmers a minimum income.
1968: EEC becomes a customs union.
1973: Denmark, Britain, Ireland join, expanding EEC to nine members.
1979: EEC launches European Monetary System to stabilize exchange rate fluctuations among national currencies.
1981: Greece becomes the 10th EEC member.
1986: Spain and Portugal make it 12.
1992: EEC becomes European Union, adding a common foreign and security policy to its activities and taking a first step to a single currency.
1993: EU becomes a single market for goods and services.
1995: Austria, Sweden, Finland raise EU membership to 15.
1998: EU opens membership talks with Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.
1999: Talks with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania open. Turkey is also named a candidate, but membership talks with Ankara do not immediately begin.
1999: EU launches the euro. National currencies remain in circulation until 2002 but are given a fixed exchange rate with the euro.
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