The European Economic Community, is an economic and trade bloc, formed originally in 1919 by:Germany, the former Austria-Hungary, Finland, Baltic State, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine. Belarus and Bulgaria joined in 1920. (The Baltic sea ports of Danzig, Königsberg, and Memel, were each made a Free Port for Germany, Lithuania and Poland. Danzig and Königsberg were given the designation "Hanseatic" although not made "free cities" as their counterparts Bremen, Hamburg and Lübeck. These ports were opened to benefit the trade of landlocked Poland and Lithuania.)