European Parliament (EP) approved Bulgaria and Romania’s applications for EU entry on April 13 2005. Bulgaria received 522 votes in favour, 70 against and 69 abstentions.

Bulgaria and Romania’s EU accession treaty was signed on April 25 2005 in Luxembourg. The treaty had to be ratified by the parliaments of all 25 EU member states as well as by the parliaments of Bulgaria and Romania.

Ratification process began on May 11 2005 when Bulgaria’s National Assembly ratified the treaty by 231 votes in favour, one against and two abstentions.

On May 17 2005 the Romanian parliament ratified the treaty unanimously.

June 21 2005 marks the date when the Slovakian parliament ratified the treaty without votes against and with only two abstentions.

Hungary ratified the treaty on September 26 2005. The accession passed with 257 votes in favour, six against and one abstention.

On September 29 2005 the Slovenian parliament ratified the treaty without debates or conflict.

October 27 2005 marks the unanimous ratification in Cyprus.

Greece approved the treaty by acclamation on November 2 2005.

November 16 2005: the Estonian national assembly ratified the treaty without votes against or abstentions.

The procedure in Malta ended on January 24 2006.

On December 6 2005 the parliament of the Czech Republic ratified the treaty by 155 votes in favour. Nearly three months earlier, on September 15 2005 the Czech senate had approved the treaty.

On December 14 2005 only one member of the Spanish senate voted against the treaty.

Italy ratified the treaty on December 22 2005.
 
On January 26 2006 Latvia ratified the treaty by no votes against and five abstentions.

February 7 2006: UK’s House of Lords ratified the treaty without a division. The House of Commons had already ratified it on November 24 2005.

March 8 2006 saw the ratification in the Portuguese parliament by 181 votes in favour and 11 abstentions.

On March 30 2006 the Lithuanian parliament and the Polish senate ratified the treaty. Polish lower house of the parliament had ratified the treaty on March 10 2006.

Sweden approved the treaty by acclamation on May 9 2006.

On May 11 2006 the Austrian federal council ratified the treaty by personal vote. Only one MP voted against. Austrian national council, the other house of the country’s federal assembly, approved the treaty on April 26 2006.

Dutch senate adopted the treaty without voting on June 13 2006.

On June 19 2006 the Finnish parliament adopted the treaty without voting.

Another unanimous decision came on June 21 2006 when the Irish senate ratified the treaty.

Luxembourg ratified the treaty on June 29 2006.

September 19 2006 marked the day when the ratification process in Belgium was finally over. All parliaments of the Belgian communities had to ratify the treaty. The process began on March 30 2006.

On October 3 2006 the French senate approved the treaty by personal vote. Communist senators refused to vote on the accession treaty. They said that they accepted ‘with open arms’ Bulgarians and Romanians but were afraid that the integration to the EU would bring Bulgarians and Romanians only disappointment. The national assembly of the country had ratified the treaty on June 27 2006.

Danish parliament ratified the treaty with the highest number of abstentions in all treaty votings in the EU states or 15 on November 21 2006.
 
On November 24 2006 Germany became the final EU member state to ratify the treaty. Voting passed without division.

Germany presented the ratified document to Italian government which is EU treaties’ depository on December 20 2006. The ratification was legally completed.