ACCESSION CRITERIA (COPENHAGEN CRITERIA)

In June 1993, the Copenhagen European Council established, for the first time, specific criteria that the countries applying for accession to the European Union must respect.

The country must be in Europe and, in addition, the criteria are as follows:

1.     political criteria: stability of the institutions guaranteeing democracy, the primacy of law, respect for human rights, as well as the respect for and protection of minorities;

2.      economic criteria: the existence of a viable market economy, the ability to withstand competitive pressures and market forces in the internal market of the Union;

3.     the ability of the applicant country to accept obligations as a member of the Union and to implement the Community rights and obligations in its national legislation.

These accession criteria were confirmed by the Madrid European Council in December 1995, which also emphasized

4.  the importance of adapting the administrative structures of applicant countries, so that European Community legislation transposed into national legislation is implemented effectively through appropriate administrative and judicial structures

The European Union reserves the right to decide when it will be ready to accept new members.

During the candidate country negotiations these criteria are regularly monitored, progress and regress in their respect is mentioned and on that base are made the decision when the particular country will join, what other measures should be taken, etc.

In order to assess progress achieved by each country in preparing for accession, the Commission submits Regular Reports to the Council. The reports serve as a basis for the Council to take decisions on the conduct of the negotiations or their extension to other candidates on the basis of the accession criteria.