Regular report from the Commission on Bulgaria's progress towards accession 2003.

Abstract

In Agenda 2000, the Commission said it would report regularly to the European Councilon progress made by each of the candidate countries of Central and Eastern Europe withpreparations for membership, and that it would submit its first Report at the end of 1998.The Luxembourg European Council in December 1997 decided that:“From the end of 1998, the Commission will make Regular Reports to the Council,together with any necessary recommendations for opening bilateralintergovernmental conferences, reviewing the progress of each Central and EasternEuropean applicant State towards accession in the light of the Copenhagen criteria,in particular the rate at which it is adopting the Union acquis [...] TheCommission’s reports will serve as the basis for taking, in the Council context, thenecessary decisions on the conduct of the accession negotiations or their extension toother applicants. In that context, the Commission will continue to follow the methodadopted by Agenda 2000 in evaluating applicant States’ ability to meet the economiccriteria and fulfil the obligations deriving from accession.”Consequently, the Commission has published a series of yearly Regular Reports onBulgaria covering the years 1998 to 2002.