EU Enlargement policy

• Enlargement includes:– Widening • From 6 founding members to 27 (soon 28 members)• From 1,299,290 km2 to 4,324,782 km2 of 10,180,000 km2 –

almost half of Europe’s territory• Population from approx. 200,000,000 to 503,492,041 of

739,165,030 European population

– Deepening • From Coal and Steel Community to political integration

Waves of enlargement1951

France, FR of Germany, Italy, Benelux countries

1973Britain, Ireland, Denmark

1981 Greece

1986Spain, Portugal

1995Austria, Sweden, Finland

2004Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech, Poland, Leetonia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary,

Malta, Cyprus

2007Rumania, Bulgaria

Legal Basis

• TUE: Art. 49 “every European state that respects written principles of Art. 6 (1) can apply for membership in EU”

Enlargement strategy• Integration capacity

• Absorption capacity

• Speed or Quality?!

• Consolidation– Adherence to the countries joining the EU

• Conditionality– Fair and rigorous

• Communication – Effective communication and what brings for citizens

Copenhagen criteria for membership• Political criteria– Democracy, rule of law, human rights, minority rights,

good neighborhood, cooperation with Hague tribunal

• Economic criteria– Free market economy, economic stability, ability to

compete with other economies of the Union

• Acquis communitaire – Harmonization of national legislation with EU law– Acquis chapters– 35 chapters

Association Agreements• Association agreement– Turkey, Malta, Cyprus

• Europe Agreement– Former socialist states of eastern Europe

• Stabilization and Association Agreement –Western Balkans

Mechanisms of pre-accession • SAP – Stabilization and Association Agreement

• European Partnership

• PHARE

• Instrument for pre accession assistance – IP

• National programmes for aproval of Acquis Communautaire (AC)

• Progress reports of European Comission

• Political dialogue

Dialoge

Feasibility Report

SAP Negotiations

Concluding SAP – Transitory M.

SAP Implementation

Application for Membership

Opinion from Commission

Accession negotiation

EU Accession

Accession process• Submitting application for accession to the Council

of EU • European Commission (EC) evaluates capacity of

applicant state in terms of fulfilling the conditions for membership

• If EC evaluates positively with positive opinion

• then it is required the consent of EP, then EU Council should unanimously agree

Negotiations• First step “scanning” on the area of legislation – Acquis

• EC presents the report of “scanning” for each state and for each chapter, the state presents its negotiations position

• EC submits a draft of joint position and EU Council approves it unanimously to open negotiations of Acquis chapters

• Negotiations take place at the level of ministers or permanent representatives of EU member states from the EU side and ambassadors and chief negotiators of candidate states

Monitoring• EC informs regularly the EU Council and EP for the

preparation of candidate countries through monitoring reports

• Regular progres reports of EC for the preparedness of the candidate state for accession

• Final report of monitoring is submited to the EU Council

Ratification and accession process

• After completion of negotiations in all Acquis 35 chapters, results of negotiations are included in the draft of accession treaty in accordance with EU Council and the candidate state

• Draft treaty is submitted to the EC for opinion, and to EP for consent

• After signing treaty is submitted to member states and the candidate state for ratification

• After ratification the treaty enters into force and candidate state becomes member