Candidate countries

Croatia

Croatia has been a candidate country for EU membership since June 2004. It was the second country to sign a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU on 29 October 2001. This agreement entered into force on 1 February 2005. On 3 October 2005, the Council decided to open accession negotiations with Croatia.

On 12 February 2008, the Council adopted the new Accession Partnership for the country. The status in the accession negotiations is that there are 22 provisionally closed chapters and negotiations have been opened in 33 chapters.

Iceland

Iceland is a country with deep democratic roots and a tradition of good governance, high social and environmental standards and historically close ties with many other European countries.

Iceland already enjoys a high degree of integration with the EU through its membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) since 1994, as well as the Schengen area, which allows its citizens to travel and work freely throughout the EU. Iceland already participates in the single market and contributes financially towards social and economic cohesion in Europe.

A significant proportion of the EU's laws are applied in Iceland today. Iceland also participates, albeit with no voting rights, in a number of EU agencies and programmes, covering areas including enterprise, environment, education and research. Hit severely by the 2008 financial crisis and economic downturn, Iceland underwent an economic recession, following the collapse of its banking system and the devaluation of the national currency. Nevertheless, the country's economic base remains strong and the prospect of EU membership is expected to have a stabilising effect on the Icelandic economy.

Already, the economy has been gradually making headway out of the crisis, with some encouraging signs of stabilisation and the IMF stabilisation programme on track. Iceland submitted its application for EU membership to the Council in July 2009. The first intergovernmental conference on the accession of Iceland to the European Union was held in Brussels on 27 July, formally opening accession negotiations with the country.

Turkey

Turkey is a candidate country for EU membership following the Helsinki European Council of December 1999. Accession negotiations started in October 2005 with the analytical examination of the EU legislation (the so-called screening process). Since then the EU closed provisionally one chapter. Turkey has had a long association with the project of European integration. The European Economic Community (EEC) signed in 1963 the Ankara Association Agreement for the progressive establishment of a customs union.

The Ankara Association was supplemented by an Additional Protocol signed in November 1970. Due to the Turkish failure to apply to Cyprus the Additional Protocol to the Ankara Agreement, the Council decided in December 2006 that eight relevant chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed until Turkey has fulfilled its commitment. The eight chapters are: Free Movement of Goods, Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services, Financial Services, Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries, Transport Policy, Customs Union and External Relations. The EU established a Customs Union with Turkey in 1995.

The scope of the Customs Union covers trade in manufactured products between Turkey and the EU, and also entails alignment by Turkey with certain EU policies, such as technical regulation of products, competition, and Intellectual Property Law. Today, more than half of Turkey's trade is with the EU.

More information about Turkey : Invasion of Cyprus, Kurds.