25 Years of EU Enlargement

25th Anniversary of the 2004 EU Enlargement.

Sixth European Union joint issue. All 21 eurozone states are issuing a coin with the same design on various dates. The coins differ only in their inscriptions, which appear in the respective national language.

For France, the EU enlargement of 1 May 2004 was a politically complex event. With the accession of ten new member states — including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, the three Baltic states, as well as Malta and Cyprus — the European Union grew to 25 members, becoming the largest enlargement round in its history. As a founding member of the European Communities, France had helped shape this development over decades, though not without reservations: debates about distorted competition, the so-called "Polish plumber" and fears of social dumping shaped public discourse in the early 2000s. At the same time, Paris played a leading role in shaping the terms of accession and the transitional arrangements for the labour market.

The 2004 enlargement permanently altered the balance of political power within the Union. The EU's geographic centre of gravity shifted eastward, new majorities formed in the Council, and France had to renegotiate its traditional claim to leadership — previously exercised mostly in close coordination with Germany — within a larger and more diverse alliance. At the same time, the enlargement opened up new economic spaces: French companies benefited from access to growing markets in Central and Eastern Europe. On the 25th anniversary of the 2004 EU enlargement, France marks in 2029, with this commemorative coin, a date that structurally realigned European integration and whose effects are still felt today.