Global InformationPotential enlargement of the European Union information
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There are nine recognised candidates for membership of the European Union: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine.[1] Kosovo (the independence of which is not recognised by five EU member states) formally submitted its application for membership in 2022 and is considered a potential candidate by the European Union.
Montenegro and Serbia, the most advanced candidates, are expected to join earlier than the others.[2][3] Due to multiple factors, talks with Turkey are at an effective standstill.[4]
The accession criteria are included in the Copenhagen criteria, agreed in 1993, and the Treaty of Maastricht (Article 49). Article 49 of the Maastricht Treaty (as amended) says that any "European state" that respects the "principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law", may apply to join the EU. Whether a country is European or not is subject to political assessment by the EU institutions.[5] Past enlargement since the foundation of the European Union as the European Economic Community by the Inner Six states in 1958[6] brought total membership of the EU to twenty-eight, although as a result of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom, the current number of EU member states is twenty-seven.
Of the four major western European countries that are not EU members, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland have submitted membership applications in the past but subsequently frozen or withdrawn them, while the United Kingdom is a former member. Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, as well as Liechtenstein, participate in the EU Single Market and also in the Schengen Area, which makes them closely aligned with the EU; none, however, are in the EU Customs Union.
- ^ "Joining the EU". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 16 December 2023.
- ^ "EU advances membership talks for Montenegro, Serbia". Euractiv. 11 December 2017. Archived from the original on 4 October 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Hahnwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Legal questions of enlargement". The European Parliament. 19 May 1998. Archived from the original on 21 March 2006. Retrieved 9 July 2008.
- ^ Current Article 1 of the Treaty on European Union reads: "The Union shall be founded on the present Treaty and on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Those two Treaties shall have the same legal value. The Union shall replace and succeed the European Community".