Beyond formal requirements: what is the process of accession to the EU?
By Lucrezia Nicosia, 6 minutes
The European Union today consists of 27 Member States and it is the result of a continuous process of growth that occurred through the accession of new states. From a starting point of the “inner six” (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), the latest country to join the Union was Croatia in 2013 and the latest to leave it was the United Kingdom in 2020.
What are the criteria for accession to the European Union?
To join the EU, a state needs to fulfil certain criteria which are listed in Article 49 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU). It states that “Any European State which respects the values referred to in Article 2 and is committed to promoting them may apply to become a member of the Union […]”.
Two major requirements may be distinguished from this provision. The first one is that only European states are eligible for accession; this refers to a geographical criterion, even though a certain degree of political discretion is left to the Union. For example, in 1987, Morocco applied for membership in the European Communities, but it was rejected because it was not considered a “European state”.
The second requirement entails that the state in question must respect the values referred to in Article 2 TEU, which stipulates the following:
Respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, rule of law, and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.
Prevalence of values of pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men.
Furthermore, states must uphold these obligations not just at the beginning of the application process, but before their accession and throughout their membership.
Additional rules for eligibility were laid down in Copenhagen in 1993 by the European Council:
“Accession will take place as soon as an associated country is able to assume the obligations of membership by satisfying the economic and political conditions required.
Membership requires that the candidate country has achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.”
Specifically, three categories of criteria can be identified:
According to the political criteria, a candidate state must have functioning democratic governance, it must respect and uphold the rule of law, and guarantee the protection and respect of human rights and minorities.
From an economic standpoint, the state is required to have a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competition and market forces within the Union.
Finally, the legislative requirement - which is implied in the text - entails that a state must adopt laws in line with the acquis communautaire, which is the ability to take on and implement effectively the obligations of membership.
When all these criteria are fulfilled, there is an agreement between the Member States and the applicant State as laid down in Article 49(2) TEU. To finalize the procedure, candidate countries start accession negotiations with the EU with the aim to align themselves with the Union standards.
Candidate countries for the European Union
Currently, there are five recognised candidates negotiating their EU membership: Turkey (which applied in 1987); North Macedonia (2004), Montenegro (2008), Albania (2009), and Serbia (2009). Kosovo (2008) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2016) are considered potential candidates, meaning that they are promised the prospect of joining the Union when they are ready. Finally, Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova applied for membership in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Below, you can find an overall assessment of the negotiation process of the five recognised candidates. The following information has largely been based on the European Commission’s website, which can be found here.
Which country/ies are the most advanced in the procedure?
Montenegro and Serbia are both considered the most advanced in the procedure, and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker argued that he expects them to join the bloc by 2025, as both countries are opening new chapters required for accession. To understand this, accession negotiations are divided into 35 “chapters”, each of them covering specific areas to help the candidate country align with European standards. The opening of new chapters is a key moment in the accession process, as it signals that the country is meeting the requirements necessary for EU membership and is ready to negotiate further on the standardized fields.
So far, Serbia has opened eighteen chapters and provisionally closed two. However, following Serbia's refusal to join Western sanctions against Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the European Parliament stated that it "strongly regrets Serbia’s non-alignment with EU sanctions against Russia, which damages its EU accession process.” On the other hand, Montenegro has opened thirty chapters, provisionally closed three chapters, and has two chapters with no outstanding issues to adopt.
The accession procedure of Albania and North Macedonia began in March 2020; therefore, it is expected that the procedure will last still more years.
Turkey applied in 1987 for membership in the European Community (EC), the predecessor of the European Union (EU). Negotiations opened in 2005, but in 2022 - 35 years after the application - it is still up in the air whether there is a concrete prospect for Turkey of joining the Union.
Why is Turkey taking so long to gain access to the EU?
Throughout time, Turkey's progress has been slow, as it opened sixteen chapters and closed only one. Especially after the repressive reaction of President Erdoğan following the 2016 coup d’état attempt, relations with the EU were further damaged. In particular, Turkey has been accused multiple times of human rights violations and non-compliance with the rule of law. This tension in Turkey-EU relationships led the General Affairs Council of the EU to argue, in 2018, that “Turkey has been moving further away from the European Union. Turkey’s accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing […]”.
To conclude…
Joining the European Union is a more complicated process than simply checking off a list of abstract requirements. This is clearly demonstrated by the ongoing negotiations required before a state can effectively be considered to respect EU standards. Despite the fact that the formal criteria for accession have not changed throughout the years, the EU has gradually become more selective in its choice of members, also because of the greater number of EU Member States that would need to agree. This is especially true for the Eastern European states. More information on this concern can be found here, in another article written by the blue&yellow team, where Aari discusses how the Russia-Ukrainian war might have accelerated the process of integration of Eastern European countries into the Union.
