Demand for Take-Over of the Whole Acquis by the Accession Countries – an Impediment for Membership?

According to Copenhagen criteria from 1993, EU defined the take-over of the complete body of common EU legislation (so called acquis communautaire) as one of the requirements for EU membership – together with democracy, protection of human rights, market economy and external security. While the accession countries have mostly achieved other prerequisites of becoming an EU member, the implementation of the acquis remains a difficult and contested issue and is hence an impediment for membership. The author investigates the corresponding position of interests for both the old EU members and the candidates concerning the acquis. The author concludes that the EU enlargement will not fail due to the opposition of the old members, since the potential enlargement losers will be compensated for. In the accession countries, however, the fulfilment of membership requirements must be democratically legitimised: therefore it needs support both from EU and candidate country governments.