The day following the signing of the Accession Treaty by the ten new Member States on 16 April 2003 in Athens, the French daily newspaper Libération emphasises the special nature of the fifth enlargement of the European Union. With a view to shake off their Communist past for good and become part of free Europe once again, the new democracies of Eastern Europe come to terms with a difficult transitional period involving the adaptation of their institutions and their legal and economic systems.