Comprehensive monitoring report of the European Commission on the state of preparedness for EU membership of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Abstract

In its Strategy Paper “Towards the enlarged Union”, which accompanied the 2002Regular Reports on the candidate countries for accession, the Commission consideredthat ten candidate countries will have fulfilled the criteria for membership from thebeginning of 2004 and recommended that the accession negotiations be concluded withthem. Subsequently, the accession negotiations with the Czech Republic, Estonia,Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia wereconcluded and a Treaty of Accession was signed in Athens on 16 April 2003. These tencountries are to join the EU on 1 May 2004.More details on the overall state of the enlargement process can be found in the StrategyPaper entitled “Continuing enlargement”, which continues the series of yearly strategypapers adopted by the Commission on the enlargement process as a whole. This paperalso presents the summary findings of the Regular Reports on the candidate countriesBulgaria, Romania and Turkey.