Tag: accession countries

Montenegro expects to gain European Union candidate status in November and to start accession talks soon, its prime minister said on 8 October. The European Commission is set to present its opinion on Montenegro's readiness to acquire candidate status next month.

In Croatia there is a "significant gap" between the political elite, which is "resolutely turned towards EU integration", and public opinion, which is "still lukewarm on the issue," according to Jacques Rupnik, a researcher at Sciences Po in Paris. The Balkan specialist spoke to EurActiv France in an interview.

"Five years (or two and a half, in the case of Bulgaria and Romania) following accession, EU membership for the ten central and eastern European states […] has not marked the end of the process of transition of those countries," writes Assya Kavrakova in a recent report for the European Policies Initiative (EuPI).

"The fact that Turkey lags so far behind when it comes to the fight against bribery and corruption seriously lowers Turkey's status before the EU," argues Zeynep Gögus, the president of Brussels-based NGO TR Plus Centre for Turkey in Europe and EurActiv Turkey's publisher, in an interview with Today’s Zaman, a Turkey-based English daily.

European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said he was adopting a "wait-and-see" attitude towards EU hopefuls Serbia and Turkey in light of recent developments in the two countries.

Growing scepticism about the EU is spreading through Turkish society, writes Zeynep Gögüş, publisher of EurActiv Turkey in the following commentary.

For many politicians, journalists and think-tanks, the benefits of Turkish accession to the EU are "plain to see", writes Katinka Barysch in an August 2007 paper for the Centre for European Reform (CER).

Europe's entrepreneurs are convinced of the merits of Turkish accession to the EU even though EU politicians and voters are not, observe Katinka Barysch and Rainer Hermann in a June 2007 essay for the Centre for European Reform (CER).

On 22 July 2007, Turkish voters will renew the 550 members of the Grand National Assembly, the only chamber of Parliament. A Robert Schuman Foundation paper reviews the main issues in the general election - coming four months early following Parliament's failure to elect a successor to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Vasile Puscas, university professor and EU chief negotiator has published a study on Romanian accession negotiations and urges the EU to revise its negotiation and communication policy.

Turkey should develop a National Lisbon Reform Programme, says an expert report. Other reforms should tackle the issues of employment of women and trade union rights.

The Bulgarian government has reacted sharply to reproaches by the Commission of having made only limited progress on the country's way to EU accession.