A Guide to the Enlargement of the European Union (II): A Review of the Process, Negotiations, Policy Reforms and Enforcement Capacity (Revised and Extended Edition)

Phedon Nicolaides/Sylvia Raja Boean/Frank Bollen/Pavlos Pezaros
ISBN 13 978-90-6779-135-9 EIPA Code #: 1999/P/05 Year: 1999 Pages: 102

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Description
Since 1991, the European Institute of Public Administration has been conducting seminars for civil servants from Cyprus and Central and Eastern European countries to familiarise them with EU institutions, decision-making procedures, policies and the EU legal system. These countries are now in the process of preparing themselves for eventual accession to the European Union.
The purpose of this paper is to serve as a guide to the requirements of membership and to the nature of the negotiations that will determine the terms of accession of the applicants to the Union. This edition has been extensively revised and extended to include new material on the content and process of negotiations, EU policy reform and the development of the applicant countries' capacities to enforce EU rules effectively.
The next enlargement of the Union will be unique in the sense that it will involve the largest ever number of candidate countries and will come at a critical moment in the evolution of the EU. The Treaty of Amsterdam has just come into force, the newly established European Central Bank is struggling to run a credible monetary policy, and the EU is trying to speak with a common voice on international affairs whilst also attempting to usher in extensive reforms of its internal policies and institutions, the success or failure of which will inevitably affect the timing and extent of the next enlargement.
This paper aims to identify the issues that will be considered during the accession negotiations, and warns that applicant countries should be ready for the unexpected. Successful preparation for the negotiations, and then for actual membership, requires not only political, legal and economic adjustment but also continuous monitoring and assessment of developments within the EU. Above all, the candidate countries ought to realise that the requirements for membership are never static.