Krachtlijnen van de uitbreiding

1. Legal basis

Articles 6.1. and 49 of the Treaty on European Union together state that ‘any European state which respects the principles of liberty, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, principles which are common to the Member States, may apply to join the Union’.

2. Accession criteria

The provisions set out in the treaty have been complemented with more specific criteria:
the European Union is prepared to accept candidate countries as Member States provided they meet the following political and economic requirements (also called ‘Copenhagen criteria’ because they were set out in December 1993 by the European Council in Copenhagen):

• stable institutions that guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;
• a functioning market economy, as well as the ability to cope with the pressure of competition and the market forces at work inside the Union;
• the ability to assume the obligations of membership, in particular adherence to the objectives of political, economic and monetary union.

In addition, this European Council stated that the Union's capacity to absorb new members, while maintaining the momentum of European integration also constitutes an important consideration in the general interest of both the Union and the candidate countries.

The Madrid European Council of December 1995 further required the candidate State to have created the conditions for its integration by adapting its administrative structures.

3. Preparing accession

It is important for countries wanting to join the EU to be well prepared for membership. The European Council of Essen in 1994 set up a pre-accession strategy which was further consolidated by the European Council of Helsinki and in 1999.

This involves:

• Implementing European or association agreements: these association agreements prepare the accession of the associated country with regard to respecting European values.
• The accession partnership is the key feature of the strategy: it sets the priorities for the candidate State and mobilises all forms of EU assistance within a single framework.
• National Programmes for the Adoption of the Acquis (NPAA): these programmes complete the accession partnership by setting out in detail how the candidate State intends to fulfil the partnership’s priorities. The candidate State’s parliament must ratify these programmes so as to broaden and guarantee the political legitimacy of the project throughout the preparatory process.
• Pre-accession assistance

The following three financial instruments were used until the end of 2006:

• Phare: a programme which financed projects designed to adapt administrative and legal systems and develop infrastructures in candidate countries.
• Sapard: a structural adjustment programme for agriculture and rural development.
• Ispa: a structural pre-accession instrument to assist candidate countries in adapting to transport and environmental requirements for accession.
  From 1 January 2007, the Commission will use a new financial tool for promoting modernisation, reform and alignment with the acquis: the Instrument of Pre-Accession (IPA). This will entirely replace previous assistance instruments such as Phare, Cards, Ispa and Sapard. The Western Balkan countries and Turkey will benefit from almost € 11.5 billion over the next seven years.
• Participating in EU programmes and agencies.
• Gradual involvement in CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) activities.

4. The accession procedure

• Any enlargement procedure (request to join the EU) begins by submitting an official application for membership to the European Council, which then makes a unanimous decision after having received an opinion from the European Commission and the approval of the European Parliament.
• Actual negotiations take the form of a series of bilateral intergovernmental conferences involving the EU Member States on the one hand and each candidate State on the other.
• Negotiating positions are unanimously approved by the European Council.
• The results of the negotiations are included in a Treaty of Accession (1) which is submitted to the European Council for approval and to the European Parliament for agreement.
• Once the Treaty of Accession has been signed, it is submitted to the Member States and the candidate State for ratification. In most cases, ratification will involve action taken by the national parliament. For Belgium, such a treaty must be put before the various parliamentary assemblies (federal level: Chamber of Representatives and Senate + at community and regional level) because it is regarded as a ‘mixed treaty’ which has an impact on federal, regional and community competencies. Other countries (depending on their respective constitutions) may hold a referendum to definitively approve the Treaty of Accession.

5. Principles of negotiation

Negotiations can begin once the candidate countries have fulfilled the accession criteria. This process will then determine under what conditions each candidate State will become a member of the EU.

To become a Member State, candidate countries must accept the EU acquis consisting of the basic treaties and the specific rules and regulations adopted based on the founding treaties of the EU. Before negotiations begin, an in-depth analysis of the implementation of EU law, referred to as ‘screening’, is carried out by the Commission for each candidate State.

The purpose of the negotiations is to discuss the conditions under which the candidate countries are to adopt, implement and apply the acquis and, among other things, address the granting of transitional periods. Such periods are to be exceptional, targeted and of limited duration.

Bilateral negotiations between a candidate State and the EU are divided up into a number of chapters (31 for negotiations during the fifth enlargement, 35 for those underway with Turkey and Croatia (2)), and each chapter is negotiated individually. However, all chapters need to have been approved to obtain the overall agreement.
The pace of negotiations can vary, and this depends on the extent to which a candidate State is prepared, the progress made and the degree of complexity of the issues to be handled. Ultimately, each chapter is evaluated based on its own merits.
Once the European Council has unanimously approved the negotiating positions, their outcome is included in the Treaty of Accession submitted for ratification to the Member States and the candidate State.

6. New rules adopted by the European Council of December 2004

During its meeting of 16 and 17 December 2004, regarding accession negotiations for future enlargements, the European Council agreed that ‘accession negotiations with individual candidate States will be based on a framework for negotiations. Each framework, which will be established by the Council on a proposal from the Commission, taking account of the experience of the fifth enlargement process and of the evolving acquis, will address the following elements, according to own merits and specific situations and characteristics of each candidate State:’

• Negotiations will be conducted in the framework of an Intergovernmental Conference (where decisions require unanimity). The Council will lay down benchmarks for the provisional closure and, where appropriate, for the opening of each chapter.
• Long transition periods, derogations, specific arrangements or permanent safeguard clauses, i.e. clauses which are permanently available as a basis for safeguard measures, may be considered. The Commission will include these, as appropriate, in its proposals for each framework, for areas such as freedom of movement of persons, structural policies or agriculture. Furthermore, the decision-making process regarding the eventual establishment of freedom of movement of persons should allow for maximum involvement of individual Member States. Transitional arrangements or safeguards should be reviewed in terms of their impact on competition or the functioning of the internal market.
• The financial aspects of accession of a candidate State must be allowed for in the applicable financial framework. Hence, accession negotiations yet to be opened with candidates whose accession could have substantial financial consequences can only be concluded after the establishment of the financial framework for the period from 2014 together with possible consequential financial reforms.
• The objective of the negotiations is clearly accession and nothing else. If ‘the candidate State is not in a position to assume in full all the obligations of membership, it must be ensured that the candidate State concerned is fully anchored in the European structures through the strongest possible bond’. Moreover, these negotiations are an open-ended process, the outcome of which cannot be guaranteed beforehand.
  In the case of a serious and persistent breach in a candidate State of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law on which the Union is founded, a mechanism has been provided which allows for the suspension of negotiations.
• Parallel to accession negotiations, the Union will engage with every candidate State in an intensive political and cultural dialogue. With the aim of enhancing mutual understanding by bringing people together, this inclusive dialogue will also involve civil society.

Specific negotiating frameworks were adopted by the Council for Croatia and Turkey, and based on this negotiations began on 3 October 2005.

7. Meeting of the European Council of 14 and 15 December 2006

The European Council renewed its commitment to an enlargement strategy based on consolidation, conditionality and communication, combined with the EU's capacity to integrate new members.
In addition, the Council approved the improvements recommended by the Commission with regard to the management and quality of negotiations:

• difficult issues such as administrative and judicial reforms and the fight against corruption will be addressed at an early stage;
• the results of the political and economic dialogues will be fed into the accession negotiations;
• the pace of the accession process depends on the results of the reforms in the negotiating country, with each country being judged on its own merits. The Union will refrain from setting any target dates for accession until the negotiations are close to completion.

8. Ratification procedure

Once the Treaty of Accession has been signed it is submitted to the Member States and the candidate State for ratification. As explained previously, in Belgium this means being put before the parliamentary assemblies (at the federal, regional and community levels). Other countries (depending on their respective constitutions) may hold a referendum to definitively approve the Treaty of Accession.

(1) For example, see the Treaty of Accession signed in Athens on 16 April 2003 which came into force on 1 May 2004: the Treaty of Accession, the summary of the treaty

(2) For the accession negotiations which opened with Croatia and Turkey on 3 October 2005, the acquis was broken down into 35 chapters: Free movement of goods; Freedom of movement for workers; Right of establishment and freedom to provide services; Free movement of capital; Public procurement; Company law; Intellectual property law; Competition policy; Financial services; Information society and media; Agriculture and rural development, Food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy; Fisheries; Transport policy; Energy; Taxation; Economic and monetary policy; Statistics; Social policy and employment; Enterprise and industrial policy; Trans-European networks; Regional policy and coordination of structural instruments; Judiciary and fundamental rights; Justice, freedom and security; Science and research; Education and culture; Environment; Consumer and health protection; Customs union; External relations; Foreign, security and defence policy; Financial control; Financial and budgetary provisions; Institutions; Other issues.