The Results of the Accession Negotiations in 2000
The Results of the Accession Negotiations in 2000
The most important decision of the European Council’s last meeting held in Helsinki in 1999 articulated that, at the beginning of 2000, EU member states will start and before the end of the year conclude an intergovernmental conference, which is set to bring about the institutional reforms so vital for enlargement. By ratifying the results of this conference the EU will be in a position to adopt new members by the end of 2002.
It was also made clear in the Finnish capital, that the next presidency should open all the negotiation chapters with the “Luxembourg countries” and should start accession talks with countries belonging to the “second round of countries, i.e., the Helsinki group”.
On the basis of this it became predictable and possible, that the year 2000 will only bring technical progress at the accession talks, since all the political efforts and the attention of member states will be directed towards the IGC. This became all the more evident, when the European Council’s Nice Summit only managed to finish its work 36 hours after the original schedule, at dawn on 11 December. Analyzing the reports will provide quite a workload for politicians and experts for a long time to come. It should suffice to say that the EU has fulfilled the last formal precondition for enlargement. It seems evident that the process of ratification will not be devoid of critical moments, but one can say that the Union will be ready to adopt new members starting from late 2002.
The schedule of negotiations in 2000 will primarily be based on technical and quantitative elements. An extraordinary number of technical issues need to be cleared and made ready for the negotiations to achieve a quality leap and reach a political phase. The year 2000 has brought about significant changes in this regard.
Opening All the Chapters – the Portuguese Presidency
The Start of the Second Stage of the Negotiations - the French Presidency
The Year 2000 in the Light of the Results
The European Union After Nice
QUALIFIED MAJORITY BALLOT
