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  • EU Council bibliography
  • 16 de febrero de 2024

Library guide to EU enlargement

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At the European Council on 14 December 2023, EU leaders discussed enlargement policy, deciding to open accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and to grant candidate status to Georgia. EU leaders also reaffirmed their full and unequivocal commitment to the EU membership perspective of the Western Balkans and called for acceleration of their accession process.

The enlargement process, which requires fulfilment of a set of political and economic conditions, encourages democratic and economic reforms in countries that want to become EU members and promotes greater stability and prosperity in Europe.

The road to accession for new members is often neither easy nor straightforward. It can be long and require intense negotiations.

To help navigate the complex waters of the enlargement process, the Council Library has compiled a library guide which provides access to a wide variety of useful resources. These include books and eBooks, articles and think tank papers, EU publications, information platforms, websites and videos.

The accession criteria

The accession criteria, or ‘Copenhagen criteria’ (named after the 1993 Copenhagen European Council meeting which defined them), comprise the essential conditions all candidate countries must meet in order to become EU member states. These consist of:

  • political criteria: stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities
  • economic criteria: a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competition and market forces
  • an administrative and institutional capacity to effectively implement the EU acquis (body of common rights) and assume the obligations of EU membership

This post does not necessarily represent the positions, policies, or opinions of the Council of the European Union or the European Council.

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