The General Affairs Council meeting on May 13 marked the 10 year anniversary of the 2004 European Union enlargement. Addressing the event (video) Venizelos said: "The accession of the Ten in 2004, and the three subsequent accessions which we have witnessed since then, have expanded the Union from 15 to 28 Member States.

This unique achievement embodies much of what the Union stands for: the overcoming of centuries of conflict, the transcending of former divisions in Europe and our will to build a common future, based on cooperation, solidarity, respect for diversity and mutual understanding."

On May 1, 2004, 10 new countries with a combined population of almost 75 million joined the EU, following the signing of the Accession Treaty during the Greek EU Presidency on April 16, 2003, in Athens (Stoa of Attalos, Ancient Agora).

The 25-member EU thus formed a political and economic area with 450 million citizens and included 3 former Soviet republics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), 4 former satellites of the USSR (Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia), a former Yugoslav Republic (Slovenia) and two Mediterranean islands (Cyprus and Malta). This historic enlargement of the EU was the culmination of a long accession process leading to the reunification of a Europe that had been divided for half a century by the Iron Curtain and the Cold War.