2023-12-15 19:41:32
For Ukraine and Moldova, the date is historic. On Thursday, December 14, the leaders of the European Union (EU), meeting in Brussels, decided to open accession negotiations with these two countries, officially recognized as candidates for the EU in 2022.
But it’s just one step in a “complex process that takes time”as recalled the official EU website. Questioned on this subject on Friday in Brussels, Emmanuel Macron also said it: “We are very far from effective enlargement to Ukraine. »
► From application to negotiations
To apply for membership in the EU, a country must be able to respect the Copenhagen criteria, defined at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and reinforced at the Madrid European Council in 1995: a stable democracy, the state of law, a functioning market economy, the adoption of all European legislation, the euro…
A country is granted the status of “candidate country” by the European Council on the basis of an opinion from the European Commission. To date, seven states have this status: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
Recognition of candidate status does not, however, mean that negotiations will begin immediately. Those with North Macedonia, candidate since 2005, and Albania, candidate since 2014, were only opened in July 2022. Montenegro and Serbia have also been stuck for years in the antechamber of the EU .
Furthermore, two candidates are said “potentials”, because they do not yet meet the conditions required to join the EU: Kosovo and Georgia. The latter, like Ukraine and Moldova, submitted its candidacy shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
► The negotiation and pre-accession period
Negotiations take place within the framework of conferences between the governments of EU members and that of the candidate country. They are used to help it prepare for EU membership. Before joining, candidate countries must transpose a very large number of European legislative acts into their national law. “They benefit from financial, administrative and technical assistance during the pre-accession period”indicates the EU.
A unanimous vote by the European Council is necessary at each stage of the negotiations, which cover various themes (free movement, justice, liberty, security, customs union, taxation, agriculture, environment, etc.). The process can be long. Negotiations with Turkey, a candidate since 1999, started in 2005. But they have been frozen since 2018, relations with European leaders and President Erdogan having deteriorated significantly.
► The accession treaty
When negotiations in all policy areas are completed and the EU is satisfied that it itself is ready for enlargement, the terms and conditions – including possible safeguard clauses and transitional arrangements – are incorporated into a accession treaty.
This treaty requires the approval of the European Parliament and the unanimous approval of the Council before all EU member states and the candidate country can sign it. The contracting parties then ratify it in accordance with their respective constitutional rules.
Here too, a certain amount of time may pass between the signing of the treaty and effective accession. Romania, for example, signed its accession treaty on April 25, 2005 and entered the EU on January 1, 2007.
► A process of variable duration
After the six founding members of 1957 – Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – 22 other countries joined the EU: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom in 1973; Greece in 1981; Spain and Portugal in 1986; Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995; Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia in 2004; Bulgaria and Romania in 2005; Croatia in 2013.
If Finland was integrated in barely three years, Croatia, the last entry into the EU, waited almost ten years. Having applied in 2003, it officially obtained the status of a candidate country in 2004. Negotiations then began in 2005 and ended with a treaty signed in 2011. The country, finally, joined the European Union on July 1, 2013.
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