During the process of the enlargement of the European Union, the acquis was divided into 31 chapters for the purpose of negotiation between the EU and the candidate member states for the fifth enlargement ( the ten that joined in 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria which joined in 2007 ).

Bosnia and Herzegovina is therefore a potential candidate country for EU accession.

The country was finally accepted as EU candidate in July 2004.

However, with the influx of new members in 2004, together with awarding Turkey candidate status, public opinion in the EU turned against enlargement.

On 17 December 2005, EU Presidency conclusions listed the Republic of Macedonia as an accession candidate.

The first Dzurinda government made numerous political and economic reforms that enabled Slovakia to enter the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD ), close virtually all chapters in European Union ( EU ) negotiations, and make itself a strong candidate for accession to North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ).

The main opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, called for Ukraine to turn its attention westward and eventually join the EU.

The Commission and candidate country examine its laws and those of the EU and determine what differences exist.

Negotiations are typically a matter of the candidate country convincing the EU that its laws and administrative capacity are sufficient to execute European law, which can be implemented as seen fit by the member states.

While UK and EU law presently only allow promotion of underrepresented groups if a candidate is equally qualified, there is an ongoing debate whether more “ positive action ” measures should be implemented, particularly to tackle the gender pay gap.

All EU member states are, and candidate states are required to be, signatories to the Council of Europe's European Convention on Human Rights, so that many principles from the Convention, such as the right to a fair trial, were taken as the baseline for European Court of Justice jurisprudence even before their formal reiteration in Charter.

9 May is celebrated in various forms in most member states of the European Union and EU candidate countries such as Turkey.

On 17 December 2010, Montenegro became an official EU candidate.

As French Presidential candidate he has described the EU as " the most beautiful construction of all humanity " ( WSJ, 23 February 2007 ).

In the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 EU put up a candidate in the only constituency in Mizoram.

* Macedonia Trade and Cooperation Agreement ( 1998 ), superseded by SAA, and now a candidate state for EU.

Croatia and Macedonia also received candidate status in 2005, while the other Balkan countries have expressed a desire to join the EU but at some date in the future.

Since the referendums results were all in favour of joining, ratification proceeded without problems and the candidate countries became full members of the EU on 1 May 2004.

Members continue to support further accessions to the EU once candidate countries truly fulfil the

During the premiership of Ecevit in 1999, Turkey became a candidate for the EU.

In this capacity he helped to establish Latvia as the EU candidate country and led the accession negotiations, which resulted in Latvia's successful accession to the EU in 2004.

Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council.

The Presidency of the Council rotates every six months among the governments of EU member states, with the relevant ministers of the respective country holding the Presidency at any given time ensuring the smooth running of the meetings and setting the daily agenda.

European citizens in need of consular help in a country without diplomatic or consular representation of their own country may turn to any consular or diplomatic mission of another EU member state.

However, in the European Union, one can vote in municipal elections if one lives in the municipality and is an EU citizen ; the nationality of the country of residence is not required.

Following the 2004 Summer Olympics, President Romano Prodi pointed out that the combined medal total of the European Union was far greater than that of any other country and called for EU athletes to fly the European flag at the following games alongside their own as a sign of solidarity ( which did not happen ).

The majority of citizens ( 56 %) believe that membership of the EU has benefited their country, though a significant minority ( 31 %) believe that their country has not benefited.

Belief that the citizen's country has benefited from EU membership is lowest ( below 50 %) in the UK, Hungary, Latvia, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Bulgaria.

Some delegations within the group, notably the United Kingdom Independence Party, also advocate the complete withdrawal of their country from the EU whilst others only wish to limit further European integration.

Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the Eurozone ; Denmark and Sweden have retained their traditional currencies, whereas Iceland and Norway are not members of the EU at all.

The state institutions collapsed and an EU military mission led by Italy was sent to stabilize the country.

Historically, there have been different regulatory approaches within each country in the EU.

Since AIFMD covers the entire EU, and individual countries have different rules for hedge fund marketing, the directive introduced a " passport " for hedge funds authorized in one EU country to operate throughout the EU.

Furthermore, in every EU country outside Scandinavia ( except Belgium ), trade union membership is either static or continues to decline .”

Malta is the most densely populated country in the EU and one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with about 1, 265 inhabitants per square kilometre ( 3, 000 per square mile ).

Unlike Internet market the state of the mobile market in the country is very poor, while coverage is not really an issue all carriers practice archaic methods that carriers in many developed countries have long since abolished, general prices are very high compared to other CIS and even EU countries with no change in this segment in many years in fact in some cases the prices have even increased, mobile Internet access is in no better condition with very high prices and very low monthly caps compared to extremely well developed and cheap wired Internet access.

The country consistently contributes large amounts of aid through multilateral channels, especially the UN Development Programme, the international financial institutions, and EU programs.

Exports to the EU accounted for " 46. 13 percent of the country ’ s total garment exports ".

It is the only member country of the European Union to have avoided a decline in GDP, meaning that in 2009 Poland has created the most GDP growth in the EU.

When Austria became a member of the European Union, the Austrian variety of the German language — limited to 23 agricultural terms — was " protected " in Protocol No 10, regarding the use of specific Austrian terms of the German language in the framework of the European Union, which forms part of the Austrian EU accession treaty.

With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic became the third official alphabet of the EU.

Other complications continued to stall the EU negotiating process, most notably Slovenia's blockade of Croatia's EU accession in 2008 – 2009.

In late 2009, Kosor signed an agreement with Borut Pahor, the premier of Slovenia, that allowed the EU accession to proceed.

By the time EU accession negotiations were completed on 30 June 2010, Croatian legislation was fully harmonised with the Community acquis.

* full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal and the beginning of accession negotiations with the EU in October 2005

In December 2004, the EU leaders announced that accession negotiations with Croatia would start on March 17, 2005 provided that Croatian government cooperates fully with the ICTY.

This has been the main condition demanded by EU foreign ministers for accession negotiations.

EU accession negotiations started on 31 March 1998, and concluded when Cyprus joined the organization as a full member in 2004.

Cyprus's legislation was aligned with EU norms in the period leading up to EU accession in 2004.

The flag was used widely in a 2007 European March in Minsk as protesters rallied in support of democracy and accession to the EU.

The Unity Party and Socialist People's Party ( Greens ) were against accession to the European Union, but only the Unity Party has withdrawal from the EU as a policy.

The Independence Party and Centre Party were against accession to the EU, but only the Independence Party still wants Estonia to withdraw from the European Union.

The FDP advocates the accession of Turkey to the EU, although this would require Turkey to fulfil all criteria.

On 26 March 2004, following the decision of the Speaker of the Parliament, Marek Borowski, to found a new dissenting party, the Social Democracy of Poland, Leszek Miller decided to resign from the position of Prime Minister on 2 May 2004, a day after Poland ’ s accession to the EU.

It was expected that the EU would announce in late 2006 the date for commencement of EU accession negotiations.

Invited to begin accession negotiations with the European Union in November 1998, Slovenia has achieve two of its primary foreign policy goals: membership in the EU and NATO.