European Union MarketAfter a long history of wars and conflicts, in the mid-1940s European countries decided to find a way to anchor peace on the continent and find new ways to balance their payment deficits. After World War II, Europe suffered greatly from destruction and failing economies. They were afraid of foreign competition and began to impose trade barriers such as tariffs. This was supposed to protect domestic businesses and workers from external competition. But only a few years later, in the 1950s, all these trade barriers were considered counterproductive and the first attempts to abolish them were initiated. Based on the Treaty of Rome of 1957 the European Community was founded by six nations. Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed in 1968 to create a free trade area; which ended up eliminating all their tariffs. Only 2 years later, they formed a customs union by adjusting common external tariffs. In 1973 the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined the trading bloc and Greece became a member in 1981. Six years later Spain and Portugal were accepted and in 1992 the 12 members established a common market without any trade restrictions. Its name changed in 1993 when the Contract for the European Union was signed. In 1995 Sweden, Finland and Austria were admitted and helped build the European Monetary Union with a single currency in 2002, needed to meet all 4 convergence criteria. They regulate four important economic objectives. Price stability in each country is expected to be 1.5% above the average of inflation rates in the three countries with the lowest inflation rate. Another rule considers the long-term interest rate. It is not allowed to be more than 2% above the average interest rate in other European countries. The exchange rate must also be stable. Different governments need to ensure they stay within a certain monetary union target band. As a final objective, the convergence criteria state that public finances should not allow the budget deficit to be greater than 3% of the country's GDP or the outstanding public debt to be greater than 60% of GDP in a year. In 2004 ten new members joined the EU. Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia have been included, and Bulgaria and Romania are expected to join in 2007..