Since the European Union was created in 1958 with France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy the bloc has been involved in various enlargement processes. In 2004 there was the great magnification with the addition of a dozen Central and Eastern European countries. The last to join was Croatia, in 2013, which will also join the Eurozone next year. In the waiting roomhowever, continue Turkey Y half a dozen Western Balkan countries. All of them have had a European perspective for decades and have met with good words but also with a lot of resistance among the Twenty-seven. To request the EU accessionthe country must be European and respect democratic values from the EU. In addition, you must have stable institutions that guarantee the democracy and the Rule of lawa functioning market economy, as well as the ability to effectively assume and fulfill the obligations imposed by membership of the EU. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has precipitated kyiv’s rapprochement with the European family, which has already opened the door to its accession. Next, the candidate countries to join the European family.
Republic of North Macedonia
was declared candidate country in December 2005. As of October 2009, the European Commission began to recommend the opening of negotiations. Both in 2015 and 2016 Brussels he made his recommendation conditional on reforms. It was in March 2020 when the General Affairs Council agreed to start negotiations. The decision was subsequently supported by European leaders and in July 2020 the draft negotiating framework was presented, which has not been approved so far. There is one Member State, however, that keeps the start of talks blocked: Bulgaria demanding that Skopje pass constitutional reforms guaranteeing the bulgarian minority rights.
Albanian
ten years ago Albanian submitted its application for membership of the European Union in April 2009. Brussels recommended the granting of the status in October 2012 although the governments did not give the green light until almost two years later, in June 2014, a decision conditional on progress in key areas such as power of attorney and the public administration. Four years later, the European Commission issued an unconditional recommendation to open negotiations and in March 2020, the members of the European Council endorsed the decision to formally start negotiations. So far their accession process has been linked to the Macedonian with which the Bulgarian veto also keeps frozen Tirana’s aspirations to start negotiations.
Montenegrin
It applied for EU membership in December 2008 and obtained candidate status two years later, on December 17, 2010. Accession negotiations were opened in June 2012. After 8 years of negotiations, All the chapters of the negotiation have been opened, but so far only three have been provisionally closed. The citizens of Montenegrin who want to travel to the EU are exempt from applying for a visa since December 2009. Between 2007 and 2020 the authorities received €505 million in pre-accession funds.
Serbian
Like the rest of the countries of the Balkans received the label of potential candidate in the thessaloniki summit, in 2003. It did not apply for candidate country status until December 2009 and it was granted in March 2012. On January 21, 2014, the first Intergovernmental Conference was held, marking the formal start of accession negotiations. So far, 18 of the 33 chapters to be negotiated have been opened and only two have been closed. European aid has also flowed into this country and from 2007 to 2020 the EU allocated 2.7 billion in pre-accession funds. The EU is the main supplier of financial assistance.
Turkey
It was declared a candidate country more than twenty years ago, in December 1999, but this country considered “strategic partner” in terms of the fight against terrorism or immigration policy is still in the waiting room with no signs of progress and with the frozen negotiations since June 2018. Negotiation talks began on October 3, 2005. Since then relations have suffered constant ups and downs with long periods of lockdown. Until Ankara does not apply the additional protocol to the association agreement with Cyprus there are 8 chapters of the 33 that have to be negotiated and closed – so far they have not been able to provisionally close any – that will not be opened.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
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The Government applied to join the EU in February 2016 and the European Commission adopted its recommendation in May 2019. In the opinion, it identified 14 priority areas that the country must meet in order to open accession negotiations with reforms in key areas such as democracythe Rule of lawthe Fundamental rights wave administration reform.
Kosovo
Although there are 5 EU countries – Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus – that do not recognize the Kosovo sovereigntywhich declared its independence in 2008, this territory is also among the “potential candidates” to the EU. Its prime minister has recently assured that, despite the tensions with Serbiathe country will formally submit its application for membership by the end of 2022. The EU has been mediating for years so that serbs Y kosovars find a solution and normalize their relations within the framework of the Belgrade-Pristina dialoguekey so that it can advance in its aspirations to the EU.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.