EU Information >> EU Enlargement

The European Union (EU) was originally created by the six founding states in 1952, but has grown to its current size of 25 member states. There were five successive enlargements during this period, with the largest occurring on May 1, 2004, when 10 new member states joined.

The EU will have 27 member states when further enlargement takes place in 2007, with the probable addition of Romania and Bulgaria. Negotiations are also underway with other states. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. However, this term is also used to refer to the intensification of cooperation between the EU member states and to the increase in power from the European institutions over national governments.

In order to join the European Union, a state needs to fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993). That basically requires a secular, democratic governement, rule of law and corresponding freedoms and institutions. According to the EU Treaty, each current member state and also the European Parliament have to agree to any enlargement.

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In 1989, the European Community's Phare programme was created, in order to provide financial support for potential accession countries so that they could expand and reform their economies. Phare became a tool to help candidate countries reach the criteria, developed in 1993 to guide the enlargement process. (see also Copenhagen criteria) These state that the candidate countries must have achieved:

• stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities
   

• the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union
   
• the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic & monetary union

In December, 1993, the Madrid European Council revised the membership criteria to include conditions for member country integration through the appropriate adjustment of its administrative structures: since it is important that European Community legislation be reflected in national legislation, it is critical that the revised national legislation be implemented effectively through appropriate administrative and judicial structures.

In order to assess progress achieved by countries in preparing for accession to the European Union, the European Commission submits 'Regular Reports' to the European Council. These serve as the basis upon which the Council takes decisions on negotiations or their extension to other candidates. Since 1993, the Commission has presented a complete set of Regular Reports on a yearly basis, covering the 10 associated countries in Central and Eastern Europe (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia) as well as Cyprus, Malta and Turkey.

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It was previously the norm for enlargements to take place in 'waves' of multiple entrants joining the Union at once. The only previous 'single-state' enlargement was the 1981 admission of Greece.

However, EC members and EU ministers have warned that, following the significant impact of the fifth enlargement in 2004, a more individual approach will be adopted in future, although the entry of pairs or small groups of countries may yet coincide. Croatia and Macedonia can be expected to join first, possibly around 2010, with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey following, either together or in smaller groups.

The timing of smaller-wave enlargements is subject to many variables and the dates given in the table below are the earliest possible ones - procedures do not allow speedier admission in most cases (for example, it takes at least two years to move from a membership application to the start of negotiations).

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In the Treaty of Maastricht (Article 49), it is stated that any European country that respects the principles of the European Union may apply to join. The Copenhagen European Council set out the conditions for EU membership in June 1993 in the so-called Copenhagen criteria. Whether a country is European or not is a subject to political assessment by the EU institutions, but countries in the Council of Europe that fall onto the border (between Europe and Asia) all have a significant claim for EU membership (as shown with the accession of geographically Asian Cyprus).

The European Union has tended to enlarge along regional lines, adding groups of nearby nations. (A notable exception was the accession of Greece.) Currently, the EU is very interested in the integration of the Balkan states. Of Eastern Europe, Heather Grabbe of the Centre for European Reform has said, "Belarus is too authoritarian, Moldova too poor, Ukraine too large, and Russia too scary for the EU to contemplate offering membership any time soon." Due to the 2004 "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, and the "Rose Revolution" in Georgia in 2003, both countries have started and already implemented extensive reform programs, and an "open door" for both Ukraine and the South Caucasus now exist.

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