Croatia has become the 28th member of the European Union, with crowds joining celebrations in the capital Zagreb.


The beautiful little country of 4.4 million people joined the EU last night

Fireworks lit the sky as membership became effective at midnight Croatian time (22:00 GMT), with President Ivo Josipovic describing the event as historic.

It comes almost two decades after Croatia's brutal war of independence.

But correspondents say enthusiasm for the EU in the country has been dampened by the eurozone crisis, and Croatia's own economic problems.

'New chapter'

Celebrations took place in the central square of Zagreb, with fireworks and music including Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the European anthem.

"Welcome to the European Union!" European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Croatian to the cheering crowd.

President Josipovic said it was "a great and joyful day for our homeland".

"This the day when we open a new chapter in the thick book of our history," he added.

Earlier he told a meeting of EU and regional leaders: "The accession of Croatia to the European Union is confirmation that each one of us belongs to the European democratic and cultural set of values."

Croatian officials then unveiled EU signs and removed customs posts at the borders with Slovenia, the first former Yugoslav republic to have joined the bloc, and with Hungary, also an EU member.

Croatia is the first new EU member since Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007. It is 10 years since it applied.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23118035
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With Croatia having joined the EU as its 28th Member State at midnight its time (10pm British time) last night, the EU has grown by 21,859 sq miles to 1,691,658 sq mi (half the size of Canada);

Its population, the third biggest in the world, has grown by 4.3 million to 503.5 million;

And the EU's vast economy, the largest in the world, has grown by US$63.8 billion to $US17.577 trillion, representing a fifth of the entire world's GDP (the US economy is US$15.7 trillion).


A map showing Croatia within the EU

The EU's largest Member State (in terms of population) is Germany, with 82 million people. Its smallest is Malta, with just 400,000 people.

The EU has 24 official languages - including, now, Croatian - and its anthem is called "Ode to Joy", based on the final movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony composed in 1823. The (unelected) EU president is a creepy Belgian called Herman van Rompuy.

The capital of the EU is Brussels and the EU's largest city is London, which has a metropolitan population of 15 million.

What do you think about this Andrei.hicks?