La Ampliación de la Unión Europea: criterios de acceso y procesos de negociación

Abstract

Enlargement is a historical opportunity and an obligation for the European Union. Enlargement of the European Union will be an important factor of stability and prosperity. Therefore it must be a highest priority on its policy. The Pre-accession strategy was based on three main elements: Implementation of the European Agreements, the PHARE program and meetings “structured dialogue” to discuss issues of common interest. The accession negotiations, which were opened on 31 March 1998 with six countries, as recommended by the European Commission: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary Poland and Slovenia. In the next pages we will try to describe the phases, negotiation and state of the current enlargement process.