Integration

Abstract

The Europe agreements did not resolve the questions of whether and when the East European states should join the Community, but the associates continued to demand answers and the member states had to come up with a collective response. After much prevarication, in June 1993, the European Council agreed that the East European associates could join, provided certain membership conditions were met. The EU then devised an innovative and extensive pre-accession strategy, to integrate gradually the associates into the Union. Several key steps towards enlargement were taken in 1997, the most important being the decision to open membership negotiations with some of the associates.