A Guide to the Enlargement of the European Union: Determinants, Process, Timing, Negotiations (Revised Edition)

Since 1991, the European Institute of Public Administration has been conducting seminars for civil servants from Cyprus and Central and East European Countries for the purpose of familiarising them with EU institutions, decision-making procedures, legal system and policies. 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 on the requirements of membership and the nature of the negotiations that will determine the terms of their accession to the Union.
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 scheduled introduction of a single currency in 1999 is the most ambitious, yet potentially divisive, integrationist scheme ever attempted by the European Union. Its success or failure 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, but 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.