Vilnius Group

The Vilnius Group was an organization of NATO aspirant countries, created in May 2000, aiming at practical cooperation, exchange of information and lobbying for their candidacy in the NATO capitals.

As motto of the Vilnius group was chosen:
 * While each country should be considered on its own merits, we believe that the integration of each democracy will be a success for us all and the integration of each democracy will be a success for Europe and NATO.

The members were: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.

NATO accession
On March 29, 2004, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined NATO at the 2004 Istanbul summit. Albania and Croatia joined the alliance in 2009. Macedonia had been expected to join in 2009, but because of the Macedonia naming dispute, Greece vetoed Macedonia's invitation, leaving it as the only former member of the Vilnius group not to be a member of NATO by 2009.