The EU enlargement and the Czech Republic

The planned EU enlargement, its fifth, differs in almost all aspects from the previous ones-in the number of countries to join, in their relatively low economic level, and in their incomplete transformation from central planning. Moreover, the enlargement will take place at a time when the world is not strongly divided between two superpowers. EU countries are thus less inclined to weigh the political and strategic contribution of the enlargement, and are reluctant to agree to either a reallocation of the EU budget or to higher member contributions. Prior to the current negotiations, several crucial phases took place: European agreements, the setting up of the Copenhagen criteria, the White Book, and the development of pre-accession strategies. The turnaround year in the accession process was 1997, when the first evaluations of associated countries were published, the Agenda 2000 was prepared, the Amsterdam Treaty was approved, and the Luxemburg European Council decided that accession negotiations would start in spring 1998. At the same time, a revised version of pre-accession strategy, the Accession Partnership, were established. All candidate countries were asked to prepare a National Program for turning over to the EU legislation of the internal market.