Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. In the late 1980s, Hungary led the movement to dissolve the Warsaw Pact and shifted toward multiparty democracy and a market-oriented economy. On October 23, 1989, Mátyás Szurös declared the Third Hungarian Republic and became interim President of the Republic. The first Free elections were held in 1990. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Hungary developed closer ties with Western Europe, as well as with other Central European countries, becoming a member of the Visegrad Group in 1991, and joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union on May 1, 2004.