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THE EUROPEAN ENLARGMET
Page
Index
Introduction to the European enlargement
Criteria for become a member of the UE.
The public opinion of the UE citizens 4
The negotiations between the EU and candidates5
What are the negotiations about?6
How do the negotiations proceed?6
Witch are the benefits?7
The possible economic benefits8
The costs of a non-enlargement8
Conclusion
Bibliography10
-Introduction to the European enlargement
Enlargement has become one of the most important opportunities for the European Union at the beginning of the 1st century. It is a unique, historic task to further the integration of the continent by peaceful means, extending a zone of stability and prosperity to all the new members.
In March 18 the European Union formally launched the process that will make enlargement possible and it revealed the following applicant countries
Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Turkey
The EU should look back on a history of successful enlargements. The Treaties of Paris (151), establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), and Rome (157), establishing the European Economic Community (EEC) and EURATOM, were signed by six founding members Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Years after the union, the EU then create 4 new enlargements
17Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom
181Greece
186Portugal and Spain
15Austria, Finland and Sweden
However, the enlargement facing the EU today poses a unique challenge, since it is without precedent in terms of scope and diversity the number of candidates, the area (increase of 4%) and population (increase of 105 million), the wealth of different histories and cultures.
Third countries will significantly benefit from an enlarged Union. A single set of trade rules, a single tariff, and a single set of administrative procedures will apply not only just across the existing Member States but across the Single Market of the enlarged Union. This will simplify dealings for third-country operators within Europe and improve conditions for investment and trade.
-Criteria for become a member of the UE
After successfully growing from 6 to 15 members, the European Union is now preparing for its biggest enlargement ever in terms of scope and diversity.
These countries, with a wealth of different histories and cultures, have been preparing for membership for more than a decade. To be able join the Union, they need to achieve the economic and political conditions known as the 'Copenhagen criteria', according to which a prospective member must
•Be a stable democracy, respecting human rights, the rule of law, and the protection of minorities
•A functioning market economy, and the capacity to cope with competitive pressures
•The ability to take on the obligations of membership (in other words, to apply effectively the EU's common rules, standards and policies).
Therefore the future members need to achieve all the criteria to acquire the status of membership, and the Union needs to prepare itself adequately to receive the new members.
The Union itself must prepare for the arrival of new members by
•making the institutional changes necessary for enlargement that means ratifying the Treaty of Nice; meanwhile, the applicant countries are already participating in the ongoing debate on the future of Europe.
•providing the budgetary means that has already been done, with the European Council's decisions in Berlin
Finally, agreement must be found in the accession negotiations on terms which
•safeguard the basic rules and policies of the Union
•provide adequate flexibility for transitional periods in areas where the application of the rules could pose economic or social problems, for old or new members
The EU assists these countries in taking on the EU laws, and provides a range of financial assistance to improve their infrastructure and economy.
Negotiations for membership are under way with 1 of the applicant countries (not yet with Turkey, which does not yet meet the political conditions).On th October 00, the Commission recommended to close negotiations with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
The objective is that the first group of new members should join the EU in time for the elections to the European Parliament scheduled for June 004.
The public opinion of the UE citizens
The state of public opinion, in both the current and future member states of the EU is clearly a key factor in the communication strategy on enlargement. The communication strategy is designed to be responsive to the needs of the general public, and it is therefore important that the Commission be aware of the level of knowledge and of the key concerns of Europes citizens.
The Commission monitors the state of public opinion in the member states on a number of issues via its EuroBarometer surveys. In addition, the first annual EuroBarometer survey was carried out in thirteen candidate countries in autumn 001. A further one has been carried out in September 00.
Thanks to its coherent approach across all the countries, the Eurobarometer remains the Commissions main source of information.
Regular surveys are carried out in most candidate countries. When the results are aggregated, and taking into account the possible differences in methodology, the results can indicate certain trends and allow comparisons.
The advantages need to be better explained, and problems and anxieties on both sides must be addressed and resolved, if enlargement is to have popular support.
The latest Eurobarometer surveys of public opinion show that
•in the 1 applicant countries there is overall support for the EU 65% say they would vote yes in a referendum on membership.
•in the 15 member states there has been a marked increase in support for enlargement 51% of EU citizens support it, while 0% are against
•people in general still feel under-informed about the EU and the enlargement process
-The negotiations between the EU and candidates
The official negotiation started as follows although the countries have been many years preparing
•On 1 March 18, the accession negotiations were started with six applicant countries Hungary, Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Cyprus.
•On 1 October 1, the Commission recommended to the Member States to open negotiations with Romania, the Slovak Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Malta.
•On th October 00, the Commission recommended to close negotiatoins with Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia
The 15 Member States are the parties to the accession negotiations. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which rotates among the member states every six months, is actually Mr. Günter Verheugen (Enlargement Commissioner), presents the negotiating positions agreed by the Council and chairs negotiating sessions at the level of ministers.
Each applicant country draws up its position on each of the 1 chapters of the EU acquis, to engage in negotiations. Each applicant has appointed a Chief Negotiator, with a supporting team of experts.
The European Commission proposes the draft negotiating positions. The Commission is in close contact with the applicant countries in order to seek solutions to problems arising during the negotiations. Within the Commission, the work is coordinated by the Directorate General for Enlargement.
The General Secretariat of the Council and the applicant countries provide the secretariat for the negotiations. The European Parliament is kept informed of the progress of the negotiations and gives its assent to the resulting accession treaties. Each Member State will need to ratify the treaties of accession. In most cases this requires an act of Parliament. The debates on ratification will provide an opportunity for representatives of the people in each member state to express their view on enlargement.
In some countries a referendum may also be called on final approval of the accession treaties.
-What are the negotiations about?
The negotiations determine the conditions under which each applicant country will join the European Union. When joining the Union, the applicants are expected to accept the basis, that is, the detailed laws and rules adopted on the basis of the EUs founding treaties, mainly the treaties of Rome, Maastricht and Amsterdam.
The negotiations focus on the terms under which the applicants will adopt, implement and enforce the all the rules, and, of course all the possible transitional arrangements which must be limited in scope and duration. Under similar arrangements in previous accession negotiations, new Member States have been able to phase in their compliance with certain laws and rules by a date agreed during the negotiations.
-How do the negotiations proceed?
The European Council decided in the city of Luxembourg in December 17 that the enlargement process should follow these sequence
•The European Conference a multilateral framework bringing together ten central European countries, Cyprus and Turkey, which was launched on 1 March 18
•The accession process covering ten central European countries and Cyprus, which was launched on 0 March 18
•The accession negotiations which the European Council decided to open on 1 March 18 with six countries, as recommended by the European Commission Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Slovenia.
The negotiations with each applicant proceed on their own merits. The develop of each negotiation will depend on the degree of preparation by each applicant country and the complexity of the issues to be resolved. For this reason, it is not possible to estimate the likely length of each negotiation in advance.
The Commission proposes common negotiating positions for the EU for each chapter relating to matters of Community competence.
Negotiating positions are approved unanimously by the Council. The results of the negotiations are incorporated in an accession treaty. Then it is submitted to the Council for approval and to the European Parliament for assent. After signature, the accession treaty will pass to the member states and to the applicant country for ratification involving, in some cases, referendum. It takes effect, and the applicant becomes a member state, on the date of accession.
In order to help the countries that have applied to become members of the European Union to carry out the reforms required, the Union is providing financial assistance in different areas. As far as the candidates from central and eastern Europe are concerned, these include institutional building measures through the 'Phare' programe; environment and transport investment support under the 'ISPA' programe; and agricultural and rural development support by means of the 'SAPARD' programe.
-Witch are the benefits?
The benefits of enlarging the Union to include these countries are political, economic, and cultural
•The extension of the zone of peace, stability and prosperity in Europe will enhance the security of all its peoples.
•The addition of more than 100 million people, in rapidly growing economies, to the EU's market of 70 million will boost economic growth and create jobs in both old and new member states
•There will be a better quality of life for citizens throughout Europe as the new members adopt EU policies for protection of the environment and the fight against crime, drugs and illegal immigration
•The arrival of new members will enrich the EU through increased cultural diversity, interchange of ideas, and better understanding of other peoples
•Enlargement will strengthen the Union's role in world affairs in foreign and security policy, trade policy, and the other fields of global governance
Benefits are already visible
•In Central and Eastern Europe, some stable democracies have emerged, with democratic institutions and increased respect for minorities.
•The economic reforms in these countries have led to high rates of economic growth (higher than the EU) and better employment prospects
•This process has been helped and encouraged by the prospect of EU membership, and by the EU's financial assistance
As a result the Union enjoys growing trade with these countries (€ 17 billion trade surplus in 000), and this generates employment and growth in the member states.
-The possible economic benefits
The benefits of enlargement outweigh the costs. Although the benefits are relatively larger for the acceding countries, because they start from a lower economic base (their economies represent only about 6% of the GDP of EU-15), there are gains for both sides. Moreover, the future members, already exposed to the challenge of globalization, will help the Union to surmount it.
A study in 17 by the Centre for Economic Policy Research estimated that accession of countries of Central and Eastern Europe would even in a conservative scenario bring an economic gain for the EU-15 of € 10 billion, and for the new members of € billion.
The latest analysis of business circles argues that there are potentially huge economic and business benefits of taking applicant countries into the EU as soon as possible.A recent study of the Commission estimates that enlargement could increase the growth of GDP of the acceding countries by between 1. and .1 percentage points annually, and for the existing members it could increase the level of GDP by 0.7 percentage point on a cumulative basis. Concerning the budgetary consequences of enlargement, the framework has already been decided by the European Council in Berlin, and includes a modest amount (less than 10%) for transfers to the Central and East European countries for the period up to 006. In the longer term, after 006, expenditure will depend on a series of decisions to be taken in the fields of cohesion policy, agricultural policy, etc. The increase in the budget resulting from enlargement will be a political rather than an economic issue.
There has also been several analyses of the impact of enlargement on the labour market and migratory flows. An extensive study made for the Commission suggested that only about 5,000 people would move to the EU-15 countries from Central and Eastern Europe even if there were free movement of workers immediately on accession. In fact, the Union has now agreed on a flexible transition period of up to seven years for limiting the inflow of workers from new member states.
-The costs of a non-enlargement
The non-enlargement, or a delay in enlargement, would have costs both for the Union and for the applicant countries
•Delay in enlarging the single market, and lower economic growth in the applicant countries, would deprive member states of economic benefits.
•For the applicant countries failure to join the Union would weaken the incentive for economic reform, discourage foreign investment and reduce economic growth.
•It could therefore create political instability in Europe, and even undermine the process of democratisation, with potential repercussions for the Union.
•Without enlargement, the Union would be less able to combat the problems of organized crime, illegal immigration and terrorism
•Disillusion with the Union in the applicant countries would feed Euroscepticism in the member states
-Conclusion
The European Enlargement is an historic expansion that will finally bring Europes cold war division to an end, and it is specially very important, because all the candidate countries, are ex-communist countries. It is a great opportunity to all the countries involved in the enlargement.
However, to ensure the success of this enlargement, special monitoring mechanisms should be established to ensure that the candidate countries would tackle serious shortcomings between ending negotiations and joining, like corruption, economic crime, weak judiciaries, etc.
One important thing is joining the EU, and an other is also joining the Euro. To make this possible, this countries, would need to make fundamental economic reforms before joining the euro. It is essential that joining the euro is not seen as an end in itself. The ultimate objective is full and successful economic integration. Many requirements are needed to be able to join the euro like the deficit being below the % of the GDP, so it is possible that any of the countries will be likely to join the euro before 007.
To ensure that in long term, the enlargement is successful, a common constitution for all the countries will be required.
-Bibliography
Europa, http//europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/s40000.htm Viewed 5 Oct 00
Financial Times, European Union set for historic expansion, 10 Oct 00, pag 8
Estrella digital, www.estrelladigital.com Viewed 0 Oct 00
Berkley University, http//www.lib.berkeley.edu/GSSI/eu.html Viewed 0 Oct
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