In 2003, the average annual gross salary of a full-time worker in industry or the service sector rose to 40,375 Euro in Germany; in Lithuania, it was ten times less (4,195 Euro). Behind the political union of the European Union of 25, economic differences remain between the countries that joined the EU in May 2004 and the member states of the former European Union of 15. However, a significant growth dynamic emerged in the new member states in the mid-1990s, the end of the first transition phase between a planned economy and a market economy. The convergence of social welfare models, however, remains more uncertain.