| Author (Person) | Bower, Helen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 01.12.03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 01/12/2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ten countries from Central and Eastern Europe are due to join the European Union on 1 May 2004, but there is still work to be done according to the European Commission's monitoring reports on enlargement, which were published on 5 November 2003 [IP/03/1498]. The reports conclude that the acceding countries are expected to be ready to join as scheduled but that there remain a number of serious concerns, which require decisive and immediate action by the countries concerned. Commenting on the reports, European Commissioner for Enlargement Gunter Verheugen, said:
The European Commission also published regular reports on the progress of Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey along the path to EU membership, which welcomed the significant efforts made by all three countries but which emphasised the need for further reforms. Background The European Commission has monitored the progress made by the acceding countries to meet the requirements of membership since 1998 when it first issued 'Regular Reports' for twelve countries from Central and Eastern Europe (Malta was not included), who had applied for EU membership. Of those only six - Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia - had started accession negotiations. A further six - Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia - began negotiations in February 2000. The annual reports are intended to assess the ability of each candidate country to meet the obligation of applying the full acquis from the first day of membership. The acquis is based upon a number of criteria specified by the 1993 Copenhagen European Council (the 'Copenhagen Criteria):
These criteria are translated into some 31 'chapters', each covering one or more areas of the acquis. The Commission reports assess for each of the chapters how prepared the respective acceding countries are both in terms of transposition of laws and from the perspective of implementing structures, administrative capacity and enforcement. As a rule, only legislation actually adopted and measures actually implemented are taken into account for the assessment. The European Commission makes a distinction between three categories of preparations:
The reports provide the acceding countries with guidance for further preparation for accession, allowing them to identify the remaining gaps and to mobilise the resources and the energy that are required to fill them before accession. Monitoring Reports 2003 The European Commission's 2003 comprehensive monitoring report summarises the state of preparedness of the ten candidate countries for membership on 1 May 2004. The Monitoring Reports in 2002 concluded that the acceding countries already fulfilled the Copenhagen political criteria and that all had functioning market economies, therefore the focus of this year's assessment was on economic, legislative and administrative criteria. The comprehensive report concluded that there had been several economic policy improvements, with employment creation beginning to take hold in several countries and macro economic stability being preserved. However, the report concluded that some challenges still remain, such as the general government deficit and current account balance, which would need to be monitored. On the legislative and administrative front, the Commission's report praised the 'remarkable overall achievements' of the candidate countries over the last year and noted that sufficient conditions were in place both in public administration and in the judiciary for accession in May 2004. However, the report also cautioned that most structures needed strengthening in terms of human resources, training and budget and that the fight against corruption should remain a policy priority in the years ahead. The report also provides a detailed outline of which issues fall into each of the Commission's three categories, as explained earlier. The majority areas now full into category one but there are still certain areas requiring enhanced efforts. There are also 39 issues involving the ten countries, which are of 'serious concern' to the European Commission. They can be grouped broadly into two types of cases: those affecting the internal market and those affecting the delivery of EU funds to beneficiaries in the new Member States. These issues represent 3% of the topics concerned. Overall, the reports highlight that Slovenia is the best prepared accession country, with only one serious area for concern. Poland received the longest list of 'serious warnings' with nine different areas highlighted fur further action. These include:
Dealing with outstanding issues The Comprehensive Monitoring Report also outlines what action the European Commission could take if an accession country fails to implement the acquis in one or other area by the time of membership. The European Commission suggests that there are two options: remedial measures or support measures to help a new Member State to overcome initial difficulties 1. Remedial measures If the acquis is not properly applied in a Member State, then the Commission can launch an infringement procedure, involving a formal written exchange with the Member State in question, followed by a referral to the Court of Justice if necessary. With regards to Community funds, if a new Member State does not respect the procedural or substantive rules concerning payments in agriculture or payments for projects and measures under the Cohesion Fund or Structural Funds, the Commission will not be able to release funds from the Community budget. If these measures are not successful, the Accession Treaty itself contains three safeguard clauses. The first one (contained in Article 37) allows both present and new Member States to request the Commission to take measures to deal with serious and persisting difficulties in one or other economic sector. Although this safeguard is intended to deal with unforeseen economic shocks resulting from enlargement, it does not exclude cases where such shocks would be enhanced by a failure by the public administration to implement the acquis properly. A second safeguard clause (Article 38) is specifically designed to deal with cases where a new Member State fails to fulfil its commitments undertaken in the accession negotiations, including the proper application of the acquis. If such a failure causes or risks causing a serious breach of the functioning of the internal market, the Commission may take appropriate measures to deal with the situation. Such measures may seek to ensure the proper application of the acquis despite the failure of the administration of the new Member State to do so. They may result in temporarily excluding this new Member State or its citizens and economic operators from the benefits of certain internal market legislation and from the benefits of membership in specific areas, in order to protect the integrity of the internal market and prevent damage to others. The third safeguard clause (Article 39) is similar to the second one but covers issues relating to mutual recognition in criminal and civil law matters. The three types of safeguard measures based on the Accession Treaty can be taken until 1 May 2007. 2. Support measures Beyond remedial or legal action, specific support measures may help to improve or speed up alignment with the acquis. Depending on the nature of the problem, training seminars or twinning (light) projects or similar instruments, which can be mobilised quickly and can be focussed on well targeted issues, as foreseen by the Transition Facility could be used. Alternatively, financing can be sought from the remaining unallocated Phare funds and from the additional funds available under the Transition Facility to implement a number of existing specialised mechanisms (such as the Customs 2007, Fiscalis, and other programmes) to address gaps in the new Member States. Regular Reports 2003 In addition to the comprehensive monitoring report and individual accession country monitoring reports, the European Commission also published three regular reports on 5 November 2003, assessing the progress of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey towards the accession criteria as well as a strategy paper on their path to membership. The reports on Bulgaria and Romania note the significant progress made by both countries since the 2002 reports in implementing the accession criteria. According to the European Commission, both countries continue to fulfil the political criteria and are getting closer to fulfilling the economic and acquis criteria. Bulgaria is more prepared than Romania, having already concluded negotiations on twenty six of the thirty one chapters whilst Romania has only closed twenty and has yet to win the status of a 'functioning market economy'. Both countries were given serious warnings on the continuing high level of corruption in their countries and their weak institutions. However, they were also told that they should be ready to sign a joint accession treaty by the end of 2005, in order to become EU members in 2007. The European Commission plans to support these efforts by presenting a three year financial framework for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Council in the beginning of 2004. The financial framework would be based on the principles and methodology developed for the negotiations with the ten acceding countries and the Commission would follow it with the proposal of common negotiating positions dealing with the financial implications in the fields of agriculture, regional policy and budgetary issues. Turkey, which has yet to open accession negotiations with the EU, was also the subject of a regular report. This concluded that Turkey has continued to make significant progress towards achieving compliance with the Copenhagen political criteria by accelerating the pace of reforms. However the Turkish government still needs to strengthen the independence and the functioning of the judiciary and the overall framework for the exercise of fundamental freedoms. The European Union is under pressure from the Turkish government to announce when it will open negotiations, pressure which has been increased by the recent terrorist attacks in Istanbul and subsequent calls for Turkey to join the European Union sooner than planned. However, the European Commission maintains that it will issue a report and a recommendation before the end of October 2004 on whether Turkey fulfills the Copenhagen Criteria, allowing the European Council to decide in December 2004 on the possible opening of negotiations with Turkey. One particular obstacle is likely to concern the island of Cyprus, with no settlement on the reunification of the island foreseeable in the near future. From an EU of 15 to 28 to... The 2003 Monitoring Reports are set to be the last for the ten countries who will be EU Member States by the time the annual process takes place in 2004 although the European Commission has suggested that there might be some form of assessment report. However the Regular Reports for Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania will be published once again in Autumn 2004. Beyond that, it is not yet certain who will be the next 'candidate countries' but the European Commission is expected to issue its opinion on Croatia's application in Spring 2004 and several countries in South Eastern Europe have expressed their eagerness to submit membership applications soon. With the EU's final borders not yet decided, one can be sure that the annual tradition of enlargement monitoring reports will continue for years to come. Further information within European Sources Online: European Sources Online: Topic Guides:
European Sources Online: In Focus:
European Sources Online: European Voice:
European Sources Online: Financial Times:
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions European Commission
European Parliament Miscellaneous Organisations The Centre for European Policy Studies
The Institute of European Affairs
The European Policy Centre
News Organisations BBC News Online:
Helen Bower Background and reporting on the week's main stories in the European Union and the wider Europe. |
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| Subject Categories | Politics and International Relations | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Countries / Regions | Cyprus, Eastern Europe, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
