Conditions for accession to the EU

Abstract

The future of the more western transition economies (TEs) is usually directly linked to the eastward enlargement of the European Union (EU) for two reasons. First, accession is supposed to spur on growth of the TEs, enabling them to catch up with the more developed EU members. Second, once the conditions for accession met, perhaps by 2002 or 2003, it signals in some sense successful completion of the transition toward a market economy. This paper examines the conditions for accession as spelled out at recent European Councils and subsequently elaborated in concrete recommendations by the European Commission. I show that these official conditions for accession are fuzzy and that the TEs will have to meet other, as yet unspecified, conditions that shape the profile of “suitable“ future EU members, although such candidates may well fail to exist. In addition, the negotiation process itself may modify these conditions, if only because there may be a need for derogations and transitional arrangements upon entry.