FOUNDING MEMBERS

Following the entry into force of the Treaty of Rome in 1958, the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM) were established by six member states (France, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg). The Customs Union among the six founding members was accomplished by 1 July 1968, a year and a half before the date envisaged in the Treaty of Rome. 

 

 

 FIRST WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

The successes achieved by the European Community (EC) attracted the attention of other European states. In that respect, the United Kingdom (UK), Denmark, Ireland and Norway applied for full membership to the EEC in 1961. However, the application of the UK was rejected by French President Charles de Gaulle on the grounds that it was not complying with the Treaty of Rome and that Britain did not qualify for membership by claiming that it was under the influence of the US. The UK applied for the second time on 2 May 1967 which was once again vetoed by France. With President De Gaulle’s resignation in 1969, the path of European integration process was opened for the UK.

In the summit held in the Hague in 1969, it was agreed to launch negotiations with the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Norway. After the completion of the negotiations process; the UK, Ireland and Denmark joined the Community on 1 January 1973 by increasing the number of member states from six to nine. As a result of the accession of the two founding members of the European Free Trade Area (EFTA) - UK and Denmark - the relations between EFTA and the Community were rearranged. Norway on the other hand, rejected joining the Community in a referendum.

SECOND WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

Greece applied to become an associate member of the EEC on 8 June 1959 and signed the Association Agreement – the Athens Treaty – with EEC on 9 July 1961. With this Treaty, it was declared that the ultimate goal of Greece was to become a full member of the EEC. However, bilateral relations were frozen due to the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected government in Greece in 1967. After the restoration of democracy, Greece applied for full membership on 12 June 1975, based on Article 98 of the ECSC Treaty, Article 237 of the EEC Treaty and Article 205 of the EURATOM Treaty. The European Commission published a report regarding Greeces membership application on 29 January 1976 and stated that Greece was not eligible for membership due its low level of economic development. Despite this statement, bilateral relations between Greece and the EC gained momentum and accession negotiations started on 27 July 1976. After three years of negotiations, the Accession Agreement was signed between Greece and the EC on 28 May 1979. The Agreement came into force on 1 January 1981. With the accession of Greece to the Community, the number of member states increased to ten.

THIRD WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

Spain and Portugal made their first application to the Community in the year of 1962 but their applications were not accepted because of the level of democratic progress and existence of dictatorial regimes in both countries. The low level of economic development and difficulties in transition to democracy were the main underlying factors for slow progress in their relations with the EC.

Following the signing of a Preferential Trade Agreement between Spain and the EC in 1970, democratic elections were held in Spain in June 1977. A month after the transition to democracy, Spain renewed its membership application to the Community. The application was assessed by the Commission, and a favourable opinion was issued by the Council and the Commission started accession negotiations with Spain.

In the mid-1970s, Portugal started its transition to democracy. As a result of these efforts, EC granted 150 million Euros financial aid and privileges in the realm of agriculture to Portugal to promote sustainability of democratic transition. On 28 March 1977, Portugal applied for full membership and the Commission started accession negotiations. With the accession of Spain and Portugal to the Community on 1 January 1986, the number of member states increased to twelve.

FOURTH WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

The EC carried out its fourth enlargement wave with economically more developed countries than their Southern counterparts. Austria applied for full membership to the EC on 17 July 1989, Sweden applied on 1 July 1991, and Finland on 18 March 1992.

The EC launched accession negotiations with these three countries on the 1 February 1993. Since Austria, Sweden, and Finland already shared the common values of the Community and reached a high level of economic development, accession negotiations were completed in thirteen months which is the shortest timeframe in the history of the EC. Yet, the EC issued a transitional period for Austria due to issues related to free movement of goods, people, services, and capital; external relations, customs union, budgetary clauses and competition policy. In addition to these issues, Sweden was subject to a transition period due to agriculture and fishing policy and Finland was also granged a transition period due to fisheries policy. The transitional period ended in 1995 and the three countries became full members of the EC. With the accession of these Central and Northern European countries, the number of member states increased to fifteen.

THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL (1989)

With the end of the Cold War, the EU bolstered the newly independent Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), in their efforts to transition from planned economies to liberal economies and their transition from communist regimes to pluralistic democracies.

Within this framework, the first crucial decision, regarding the CEECs, was taken on 14-15 December 1990 at the Rome Summit. In this summit, the European Council approved a financial aid package for the CEECs but the CEECs underlined that steering for a “third way” outside the scope of the EC might create greater instability in the region. Therefore, the EC needed to further develop its cooperation with those countries. 

The EU-CEECs relations entered into a new phase on 21-22 June 1993 at the Copenhagen Summit where the membership prospect was given to CEECs. In addition, it was ensured that CEEC states which fulfilled the economic and political criteria and membership requirements could join the Union. 

THE COPENHAGEN CRITERIA

During the Copenhagen Summit of 21-22 June 1993, EU Member States defined the requirements to become a member of the EU which are known as the “Copenhagen criteria”. The Copenhagen criteria set out the political and economic requirements to be fulfilled regarding the acquis communautaire of the Union.

Copenhagen Criteria consist of three components:

• Political Criteria: A candidate country should ensure the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities;

• Economic Criteria: existence of a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union;

• Administrative and institutional capacity to effectively implement the Community acquis: ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.

The respect for democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities are the prerequisites of starting accession negotiations.

During the EU accession process, the Commission monitors the progress made by the candidate countries regarding the fulfilment of the Copenhagen Criteria on a regular basis and assesses them in the “Progress Report” that is published for every candidate country on an annual basis.

As for the “Accession Partnership Document”, progress reports set the agenda by taking into account the priorities of the measures to be taken by the candidate countries to fulfil the Copenhagen Criteria. Each candidate country, prepares a “National Programme” to meet the priorities and requirements which are specified in the Accession Partnership Document.

AGENDA 2000

Agenda 2000, which is another significant document for the enlargement process, was prepared by the Commission on a request by the Council at the Madrid Summit of 1995 and it was accepted at the Berlin Summit in 1999 with the aim of bolstering up the policies of the Union and providing a new financial framework for the EU for the 2000-2006 period. The aim of this process is to re-shape the Union in line with the requirements of the enlargement process.

Its main objectives were to reform Union policies, to encourage enlargement and to determine the financial perspectives of the EU for the 2000-2006 period through:

• Maintaining the agricultural reform by increasing the competitiveness, overseeing the environmental factors, providing the farmers with a fair income, simplifying the legal regulations;
• Increasing the structural funds and cohesion fund activities via projects focusing on the specific goals and regions;
• Bolstering up the pre-accession strategy for the candidate countries via two financial mechanisms: the constitution of structural pre-accession instrument (IPA) to support environmental and transportation infrastructures and of the Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (SAPARD) with the aim of facilitating the long-term compliance of the agriculture and rural areas in candidate countries;
• Accepting a new financial framework for 2000-2006 period

The measures adopted, using the communication as a basis, are in line with the Agenda guidelines: the budget effort has been consolidated, there is a greater concentration of resources, stricter implementation (simplification and decentralisation), good preparation for the integration of the new Member States.

FIFTH WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

In the Luxembourg Summit held in December 1997, it was decided to start the accession negotiations with 10 CEECs, Malta and Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC). The decision to start accession negotiations included Czech Republic, Estonia, GCASC, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia, which were called the “First Wave Countries” or the “Luxembourg Group”. For Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, which were called as the “Second Wave Countries” or the “Helsinki Group”, it was decided that accession negotiations should be launched at the Helsinki Summit in December 1999.

The framework of pre-accession and the negotiation process for the fifth enlargement of the Union were determined by the Luxembourg Summit of 1997 and Helsinki Summit of 1999. At the Luxembourg Summit, European leaders underlined the importance of the fifth enlargement as putting an end to the division of Europe. In addition, European leaders underlined that the membership process of 10 CEECs, Malta and GCASC were to be encouraged under the same conditions and on the same criteria basis.

The Copenhagen Summit, which was held on 12-13 December 2002, represented another crucial turning point for Europe within the process of enlargement. At the Summit, the negotiations conducted with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, GCSAC and Malta were finalised. Following the signing of the Accession Agreement in Athens on 16 April 2003, the EU had its largest enlargement in its history through the accession of 10 countries.

On 22 June 1995 Romania applied for full membership and on July 1997, the Commission published its opinion on the application made by Romania. Bulgaria, on the other hand, made its application for membership on 14 December 1995 and the Commission published its opinion on Bulgaria’s application in 1997. Following the Helsinki Summit in December 1999, the European Commission started accession negotiations with both countries on 15 February 2000. The European Commission presented a roadmap on 13 November 2002 regarding Bulgaria and Romania’s membership in 2007 and signed Accession Treaties with both countries on 25 April in Luxembourg. Membership negotiations which were launched in 2000 with both countries were finalized in December 2004. They became full members of the EU on 1 January 2007. Therefore, the number of Members States of the EU increased to 27 and the official languages that were used in the EU increased to 23.

 

SIXTH WAVE OF ENLARGEMENT

After its application for EU membership on 21 February 2003, Croatia’s negotiation process, which started at the same time as Turkey, slowed down primarily due to the Croatian government’s failure to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The capture of Ante Gotovina, who was wanted by the ICTY, gave a new impetus to negotiation process. However, as a result of a border dispute with Slovenia, accession negotiations with Croatia were frozen again. In the aftermath of the joint decision taken on 11 September 2009 regarding the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, Slovenia approved the provisional re-opening and the closure of new chapters in Croatia’s accession negotiation process. Due to the consolidation of the judiciary and de-politicisation of citizen-oriented public services, Croatia finished accession negotiations on 30 June 2011 and the Accession Treaty was signed on 9 December 2011. The EU, meanwhile provided guidance to the authorities on reform priorities under the Accession Partnership. The Financial assistance, under the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), is provided with 156.2 million euros to enhance Croatia’s ability to assume the obligations of membership. To this point, Slovenia stated that they will not ratify Croatia’s Accession Treaty until an agreement is reached on the debt of the “Ljubljanska Banka” to Croatian customers. The signing of a bank agreement in March 2013 between Croatia and Slovenia enabled both countries to settle their disagreement. After closing all chapters of the negotiation process, the treaty was ratified on 1 July 2013 and Croatia became the 28^th Member State of the EU.

The EU’s current enlargement agenda covers seven countries. Turkey, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia are candidate countries while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are potential candidate countries.

EU’S CURRENT ENLARGEMENT STRATEGY 

EU enlargement continues to evolve on the basis of the internal dynamics of the EU, the experiences gained from previous enlargement waves, and the specific conditions in countries on the EU’s enlargement agenda. In this context, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania despite the shortcomings in the fields of corruption and organized crime and the unilateral EU accession of the Greek Cypriot Administration, which took place before the Cyprus question was resolved, have been decisive. In addition, the enlargement policy was relegated among the EUs priorities as the narrative about the “enlargement fatigue” after the 2004 and 2007 enlargement wave dominated EU public opinion. Moreover, the enlargement policy has moved further down the EU’s list of priorities as a result of the poly-crises the EU has encountered such as the Euro Area debt crisis, the refugee crisis and Brexit. 

As a consequence, the conditions for EU accession have gradually become more difficult. The European Council has acquired a greater say in the enlargement policy. The Commission, which has generally adopted pro-enlargement stance, has put forward special initiatives tailored according to the specific situation in each enlargement country. In this context, the Commission launched initiatives such as the Positive Agenda with Turkey and the High Level Accession Dialogue with Macedonia.

In the 2011-2012 Enlargement Strategy, the European Commission adopted the “new approach” putting rule of law at the heart of the accession process. According to the new approach, the two chapters covering rule of law issues namely; Chapter 23 on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights and Chapter 24 on Justice, Freedom and Security were prioritized in the accession talks, meaning that these two chapters are to be opened early and closed last after being monitored throughout the negotiation process.

In its 2013-2014 Enlargement Strategy, the Commission introduced the “fundamentals first” approach and put the emphasis on the rule of law, economic governance, strengthening of democratic institutions, fundamental rights, public administration reform and good neighbourly relations.

During European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s term in office, whose remarks that no new enlargement would take place during his mandate had caused disappointment across enlargement countries, the enlargement dossier was taken up together with European Neighbourhood Policy and the related DG of Commission was reorganised under the name “European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations”.

Continuing the emphasis on addressing “fundamentals first”, the European Commission adopted a medium-term strategy document in 2015 and made a series of changes in the methodology of the progress reports whose functionality has become increasingly questionized. With this review, the Commission aimed to make the progress made in each policy area and level of preparedness of the countries measurable and comparable. In addition, it provided for more clarity in terms of the Commission’s expectations and the priorities on which candidate and potential candidate countries were expected to focus in the year ahead. Moreover, the reports were renamed as country reports, while their presentation schedule was changed from autumn to spring.

On June 23, 2016, a referendum was held to decide the UK’s future in the EU. 48.1% of the votes were in favor of “remain” while 51.9% of the votes prefer the option “leave.” After the referendum and the process of negotiation between the UK and the EU on the conditions of the withdrawal, the UK’s membership to the EU officially ended on January 31, 2020. With this development, the number of the Member States decreased to 27 from 28.

In 2018, the European Commission unveiled a strategy document for the EU perspective of the Western Balkan countries and proposed a series of actions to revive the reform momentum in the region. The Western Balkans Strategy spelled out 2025 as the date for the potential accession of Montenegro and Serbia conditional on the successful fulfilment reforms requirements and membership conditions. However, this approach has been met with scepticism by some Member States.

The European Commission under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen, on 5 February 2020 adopted a revised enlargement methodology titled "Strengthening the Accession Process - A Convincing EU Perspective for the Western Balkans". The need to address the reservations voiced by France, which had blocked the launch of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania by setting the enlargement policy reform as a precondition in October 2019, was decisive in the revised enlargement methodology. Under the new methodology, the 35 negotiation chapters have been reorganised into six main policy clusters: Key issues; Internal Market; Competitiveness and inclusive growth; Green agenda and sustainable connectivity; Resources, agriculture and cohesion and External Relations. Moreover, under the revised methodology, the Member States have gained a greater role in monitoring the reform performance of the countries in the enlargement process. In addition to the rewards successful reform performance would bring, under the revised methodology emphasis was put on the the reversibility of the process and potential negative consequences in case of unsatisfactory reform performance and backsliding in fundamentals. The revised methodology is designed to be used in the accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania.

As in the whole world, the main concern was to deal with the pandemic with the outbreak of the COVID-19 in 2020. While the pandemic was at the top of the agenda, the EU continued to support the Western Balkan countries. In order to be used in the efforts of fighting with COVID-19 and post-pandemic recovery period, EU leaders declared a relief package of 3.3 billion euro through the Zagreb Declaration of May 6, 2020. In addition, they reiterated their support for European perspective to the Western Balkan countries, as it had already been indicated in 2003 Thessaloniki and 2018 Sofia summits.

Beside the “Guidelines for the Implementation of the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans” which was published on October 6, 2020, the EU stressed the importance given to the Western Balkan countries by way of “Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans.” Western Balkans are defined as an inseparable part of Europe. The significance of further alignment of the region with the EU Single Market via supporting the region’s post-pandemic recovery process and the necessary steps to be taken by the Western Balkan countries for the accession to the EU was emphasized.

In Brdo Declaration dated October 6, 2021, the EU’s backing for the Western Balkans’ European perspective was expressed once again alongside with the EU’s commitment to the enlargement process and the decisions taken for this end. Additionally, the leaders of Western Balkan countries mentioned their commitment to European values and principles as well as implementing necessary reforms. On June 23, 2022, EU-Western Balkans Leaders’ Meeting was organized, and the membership perspective for the Western Balkans were underlined. With Tirana Declaration, which was published on December 6, 2022, EU reiterated its commitment to the enlargement process. Plus, a call for acceleration of the accession process under the condition of countries to enter into a strict reform period was made.

As of the start of Russia-Ukraine War, the enlargement has once again found a place at the top of the agenda. Ukraine applied for full membership on February 28, 2022 while that of Moldova was on March 3, 2022. The date when both countries were given status of candidate country was June 23, 2022. The candidate country status of Bosnia and Herzegovina was approved on December 15, 2022. EU Council has declared that Georgia will be granted the candidate country status after the country evaluates and addresses the priorities and opinions presented by the European Commission.

The questions concerning how the process will continue for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine wait to be answered. The war further complicates the situation for Ukraine. Apart from these, it is indicated that the process will depend on the developments in these countries on various topics like judiciary reform, human rights and public administration. In Bled Strategic Forum which was organized in August 2023, President of the European Council Charles Michel indicated that 2030 should be the year of new enlargement. Nevertheless, feasibility of this target is questioned both by some other EU officials and the candidate countries.

Sources for the maps: http://en.wikipedia.org and http://www.bundesregierung.de