BRUSSELS, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The year 2004 has been one of bumper harvest for the integration of the European Union (EU), which has never before achieved so much in a single year.

    This integration year, so to speak, witnessed the EU's biggest wave of enlargement, which enables the bloc to expand to 25 member states, adopting and signing of the epoch-making constitutional treaty, and making major progress in judicial cooperation and coordination.

    EU'S BIGGEST-EVER ENLARGEMENT

    May 1 marks a day of special significance for the EU. It narrowed the huge divide across the continent.

    The then European Commission President Romano Prodi said on the day: "Five decades after our great project of European integration began, the divisions of the Cold War are gone once and for all and we live in a united Europe."

    The most important significance lies in the fact that the expansion brings in political unity and stability while reducing the chances of waging war against each other to a bottom low.

    "We never want to wage war again against each other. We want to honor the dead and tend to the graves but we never again want to have soldiers' tombs in Europe. That is the most important reason for a united Europe," said former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose country was blamed for the launching of World War II.

    Meanwhile, the enlarged EU's population surged to 454 million, a 20 percent increase. Its total gross domestic product witnessed a 5 percent hike.

    Also during the year, the EU realized the completion of the negotiations with Romania and Bulgaria. Accession treaties with these two countries can be signed in April 2005 and membership talks with Croatia can commence in the same month.

    What is more, the EU leaders struck a deal with Turkey at the just-ended summit meeting, agreeing to launch accession talks with Turkey in October 2005.

    Meanwhile, the EU has elected a new parliament and a new European Commission has taken office during the second half of 2004.

    The enlargement engenders an unprecedented recognition of the European identity and cohesiveness and puts the EU in a better political and economic position to achieve its strategic goal in the world.