Formal relations with the EU date back to 1972 when Cyprus and the EEC signed an Association Agreement, which was basically a trade agreement. In 1987, a Customs Union Agreement was signed between Cyprus and the EU. The relations of Cyprus and the EU entered into a new dimension with the application of Cyprus for full membership to the Union in July 1990. Accession negotiations began in 1998 and were successfully concluded at the end of 2002. On 16 April 2003, Cyprus singed, along with the other nine acceding countries, the Treaty of Accession to the European Union, paving the way towards full EU membership on 1 May 2004.