Enlargement

Croatia to be the 28th EU Memeber State?

November 30, 2010
By Stephen
Croatia to be the 28th EU Memeber State?

Image via Wikipedia A meeting of the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee has concluded that, “Croatian Accession negotiations can be concluded in the first half of 2011 provided that Croatia meets all the outstanding closing benchmarks in the remaining chapters.” Swedish EPP MEP, who co-chairs the EU-Croatia Joint Parliamentary Committee stressed the importance to the Balkans of Croatia joining the EU. “Both for the EU and for the region, it is important that the conditionality linked to a credible EU...

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Montenegro now a Candidate Country for EU Membership

November 16, 2010
By Stephen
Montenegro now a Candidate Country for EU Membership

Image via Wikipedia The European Commission has decided to add Montenegro to the list of Candidate Countries. In an opinion issued on the 9th of November the Commission stated: On Montenegro, the Commission concluded that Montenegro is ready to become a candidate country to EU membership, while further reforms are needed in a number of key areas, as set out in the opinion, before the country is ready to start accession negotiations. Montenegro still has criteria to meet under...

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Conference: The European Union and Turkey: The Accession Negotiations and Beyond

November 14, 2010
By Stephen
Conference: The European Union and Turkey: The Accession Negotiations and Beyond

Image via Wikipedia I meant to post this during the week. I received this via email from the Centre for the Study of Wider Europe in NUI Maynooth, during the week and some readers may find this interesting. To coincide with the visit to Dublin of Mr Egemen Bağiş, Turkey’s Chief Negotiator with the European Union, The Centre for the Study of Wider Europe (www.widereurope.ie ) at the National University of Ireland Maynooth is to host a one day...

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Re-Opening Lisbon

April 9, 2010
By Stephen
Re-Opening Lisbon

After reading this headline MEPs set course to re-open Lisbon treaty Queue lots of shouts of “nooooooooooooo” from me. It is a headline from the European Voice, about MEP’s on the constitutional affairs committee voting for an IGC on the Lisbon Treaty. This is all about the extra 18 MEP’s that are to be elected under Lisbon Treaty Rules, but weren’t as the election was under Nice Treaty Rules. You get that? So to add these MEPs we need...

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Where does Europe End? – The future challenges of EU Enlargement.

February 5, 2010
By Stephen
Where does Europe End? – The future challenges of EU Enlargement.

Where does Europe End, is one of the often asked questions when talking about the enlargement of the European Union.  With the current negotiations with Turkey progressing (albeit slowly) the next challenge will be where next? Will the accession of Turkey see Syria (Middle East) or Armenia (Western Asia) applying for membership? That is of course dependent on Turkey being integrated into the EU’s structures as that itself will involve reform of the institutions. Turkey if its joins will...

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