On 15 November 2002, leaders of the European Union reached a political agreement that effectively cleared the way for a major enlargement of the bloc to include multiple Central and Eastern European countries. The 2002 decision built on negotiations conducted over several years following the end of the Cold War, when many states that had been under communist rule sought integration with Western institutions. Background After the collapse of communist regimes in the late 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, many Central and Eastern European governments prioritized joining the EU as a means to secure political stability, economic reform and access to wider markets. The EU developed accession criteria (the Copenhagen criteria) requiring stable democratic institutions, a functioning market economy and the adoption of EU laws and standards. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, candidate countries undertook substantial legal, institutional and economic reforms and entered formal accession negotiations with the EU. The 2002 agreement The November 2002 agreement was reached by heads of state and government meeting in the European Council. It finalized the timetable and key practical arrangements for admitting a first large group of new members, clarifying issues such as transitional arrangements for labor markets, financial contributions and the phasing-in of Single Market rules. The accord represented political endorsement by the existing member states that the accession process could proceed to its conclusion for the candidate countries that had met the conditions set out by the EU institutions. Significance The 2002 decision was a pivotal step toward what became the 2004 enlargement, when 10 countries—Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia—joined the EU on 1 May 2004. The 2004 enlargement was the largest single expansion in terms of number of states and added around 75 million people to the EU population. The 2002 agreement therefore stands as a key moment in the EU’s post–Cold War transformation, reshaping the bloc’s political, economic and geographic profile. Contested and practical issues Negotiations leading up to and following the 15 November 2002 agreement involved debates over governance reforms within the EU, measures to ensure financial stability, and mechanisms for integrating new members without destabilizing existing markets and institutions. Member states also discussed transitional safeguards for labor mobility and sectoral protections to allow economies time to adjust. Some debates—such as the pace of institutional reform within the EU and the extent of transitional labor restrictions—remained politically sensitive during the accession rounds. Legacy In retrospect, the 2002 agreement is widely seen as the political turning point that enabled the 2004 enlargement. That enlargement has had long-term consequences for EU policymaking, budgetary arrangements and geopolitical orientation. It also marked the culmination of a broader European project aimed at consolidating democratic governance and economic integration across the continent after decades of division. This account focuses on the political agreement of 15 November 2002 and its role in enabling the subsequent accession of new member states. It does not attribute specific, fabricated quotations to named leaders and relies on the documented sequence of negotiations and institutional decisions that led to the 2004 enlargement.