Memo: The enlargement negotiations after Helsinki

With the official launch on 15 February 2000 in Brussels of the accession negotiations with six new applicant countries - Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia - the enlargement of the European Union is entering a new phase. Not only are the negotiations going to encompass no fewer than twelve countries, as against six at present, but they will in future take a new approach, that of 'differentiation': the progress of discussions will depend not only on commitments entered into at meetings by each applicant country but also and especially on its efforts to transpose the 'acquis communautaire' into its national law and then implement it.

The European Council, meeting on 10 and 11 December 1999 in Helsinki, decided in particular to:

1. launch official negotiations in February 2000 with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia;

2. consider each applicant on its own merits during the negotiations. This principle will apply both to the opening and the conduct of negotiations;

3. allow applicant countries that have just started the negotiating process to join the countries already in negotiations within a reasonable time, provided they have made sufficient progress with their preparations;

4. ensure that progress in negotiations goes hand in hand with progress in incorporating the acquis into legislation and implementing it in practice;

5. avoid cumbersome procedures in order to maintain momentum in the negotiations.

• Primary Source

https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/index_en https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/index_en

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