Copenhagen criteria

The Copenhagen criteria are the rules that define whether a country is eligible to join the European Union. In 1993, the Copenhagen European Council identified the economic and political requirements candidate countries will need to fulfil to join the EU. It also concluded that accession could take place as soon as they were capable of fulfilling them. The criteria are: - the political criteria: stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of minorities; - the economic criteria: the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the Union; - the institutional criteria: the ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union. It includes the whole range of policies and measures that constitute the acquis of the Union that candidate countries must adopt, implement and enforce. This requires the administrative capacity to transpose European Community legislation into national law, to implement it and to effectively enforce it through appropriate administrative and judicial structures. The EU was created in 92 and the members who created Copenhagen criteria for the new members so the market will be more stable and powerfull but they cheat their numbers because as we can see today with the problems of Greece Ireland spain they didnt meet the criteria.

http://ec.europa.eu/romania/documents/eu_romania/tema_25.pdf

The futureintegration of EU By: Kristina Plato and Ionela Ion

At the moment are eight countries waiting to join the EU. The following countries are: that are acceding countries are Croatia that just joined this year. Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Turkey and Iceland are candidate countries and Albania and Bosnia are potential candidates in the present time. Croatia that already set to join the EU during mid 2013 started the accession talks at the same time as Turkey on 3 October 2005. Turkey could complete them in 10-15 years since the negotiation has been about letting a Muslim country with different point of view that could change the whole vision and values for the European Union. The European Commissions October 2012 report on Turkey criticized various human rights abuses, including the use of anti-terror laws to detain Kurdish rights activists and curb freedom of speech. So far only 13 of the 33 negotiating chapters have been opened, only one has been closed concerning science and research. No chapters have been opened for two years. The negotiations have been mainly concerningthe freedom of speech and democracy in Turkey, especially the treatment of religious minorities, women's and children's rights. The European Commission has urged Turkey to strengthen democracy and human rights, underlining the need for deeper judicial reform. Croatia will be the second ex-Yugoslav country after Slovenia to joinduring this year. Judicial reform was among the toughest of the 33 negotiating areas, or "chapters". EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said that "in one year they have completely reformed their judiciary system and have made it irreversible".

The highest-profile target in Croatia's crackdown scandal on corruption was former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking bribes, in 2012. He had been arrested in Austria and extradited to Croatia. He denied wrongdoing.He was convicted of taking millions of dollars in bribes from a Hungarian energy company and an Austrian bank, all of this extended the participation of EU. One of the biggest delay of the participation was the different ways of making appointments of judges and state prosecutors that Croatia had to do some changes to make these more transparent , clear court backlogs, pursue high-level corruption investigations more thoroughly and do more to help disadvantaged minorities. Iceland that met 14 of the 33 areas of negotiation - called "chapters" - had been opened. Of those, eight have been provisionally closed - in other words, Iceland has met the criteria. Iceland has also been threatened by a dispute over mackerel fishing. Iceland objects to the EU and Norway taking more than 90% of the total allowable catch recommended by scientists this is something the country is concerend about to lose their power over the fishing. Iceland increased its 2011 quota unilaterally by nearly 17,000 tonnes. Another sensitive area is financial reform, with Iceland still reeling from the collapse of its major banks in 2008. In two referendums Icelanders have rejected compensation deals struck by their government with the UK and the Netherlands over savings lost by investors in the collapsed Icesave online bank this is something that delays the country to join when the countries want these debts payed before the country is allowed to be a part of the EU. The UK and Dutch governments want Iceland to reimburse the estimated 4bn euros that they paid as compensation to Icesave investors. Iceland is nowadays in the Schengen zone, which means that the citizens are already having the right to travel to the European countries without visas. Being in this zone is also bringing the countryother benefits. Macedonia applied for the membership in 2004 the biggest problem has been a dispute with Greece over Macadonias name , Greece argues that the name "Macedonia" cannot be monopolised by one country, and that doing so implies a territorial claim over the northern Greek region of the same name.This continues to hamper the country to join EU and Nato. Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said with hope for the participation that "it is important that 125 countries worldwide have recognised Macedonia's constitutional name," and added: "we remain firm on our stance that only the Republic of Greece has a problem with Macedonia's constitutional name".

Montenegro applied for participation in 2008. EU opened the country's accession talks on 29 June 2012. The EU says Montenegro must intensify its efforts to consolidate the rule of law, fight organised crime and corruption and protect freedom of expression. Talks with the EU on a Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) began shortly after the country voted, in May 2006, to end its union with Serbia. The SAA was signed in October 2007. Serbia applied for the membership in 2009 and was approved to take part in 2012 but has still been dealing with the conflicts from the former war mainly concerning Kosovo, in february Serbia had made some concessions on Kosovo, the breakaway territory which has been a major stumbling block. They are still in the negotiation of the borders in Balkan. Serbia's co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague is a key condition in its accession bid. Albania applied for the membership in 2009 but are not allowed to particicate until 2015.This is because the EU thought Albania was moving too slowly in the fight against corruption and organised crime. The EU also has doubts about Albania's energy sector, which suffers from unstable supplies. Bosnia-Hercegovina is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.Bosnia's ethnic conflicts remain a worry for the EU, along with corruption and organised crime.The Commission says Bosnia is still plagued by an "unstable political climate" and ethnic divisions.

Sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11283616