Young EU members celebrate decade in rich club

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — It has been a time of monumental change for several former Soviet satellite states that joined the European Union 10 years ago: open markets and the free movement of people has spurred economic growth that at times dwarfed worldwide trends. The goods they produced reached millions of new consumers. But it also left some feeling they threw away the yoke of an overbearing Moscow for an unaccountable Brussels.

On May 1, 2004, in its biggest single expansion, the EU took in 10 countries with some 74 million people. Seven entrants were either one-time Soviet republics or once part of the Warsaw Pact: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia. The others were Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia.