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The �Polish-German Year 2005-2007� will be ceremoniously opened on 30 April 2005 in Berlin with a
concert. Under the patronage of the Federal President Horst K�hler and the Polish State President
Aleksander Kwasniewski, Germany and Poland will be representing themselves in the other�s country
my means of various cultural, scientific, political, and economic events. This will link the
celebrations of the 60th anniversary since the end of the war and the 15th anniversary of the
Polish-German Agreement.
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The EU has grown in size with successive waves of accessions. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom
joined in 1973 followed by Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal in 1986 and Austria, Finland and Sweden in
1995. The European Union welcomed ten new countries in 2004: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. Bulgaria and Romania expect to follow in 2007;
Croatia and Turkey are beginning membership negotiations in 2005.
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At the European Council of 16 and 17 June, 2005, the Heads of State and governments decided that, despite
the negative referendum results in France and the Netherlands, the process of ratification should be
pursued saying: "We have agreed to come back to this matter in the first half of 2006 to make an overall
assessment of the national debates and agree on how to proceed." A meeting has already been fixed for the
first semester of 2006. http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/constitution/introduction_en.htm
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