The Application Process
The formal accession process begins with a country presenting an application for membership to the Council of the European Union. After receiving an application, the Council implements the procedure laid down in Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union. Accordingly, the Commission is invited to submit to the Council its opinion on this application. In its opinion, or the so-called avis, the Commission presents recommendations about the process, including if there are conditions for immediate accession talks. Iceland presented its application to join the EU on 17 July 2009 and on 24 February 2010 the EU Commission submitted its opinion .
Meeting the criteria
To join the European Union, a country needs to fulfill economic and political conditions called the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993). Membership requires that a candidate country has achieved stability of institutions which guarantee democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy as well the capacity to cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the Union. Membership presupposes the candidate's ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union.
To evaluate the respective application, the Commission sends the candidate country numerous and thorough questions about its administration, politics and economics. Based on the answers, the Commission writes its opinion and submits it to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. Finally, the Council decides if accession talks are to begin with the candidate country.
- Questionnaire from the EU Commission (pdf 1 Mb)
- Answers from the Icelandic authorities
- EU Commission avis on Iceland
The screening process
Preparing for the opening of negotiations, one of the first steps is performing an analytical overview of the national legislation of the applicant state to evaluate its degree of harmonization with the acquis communitaire or EU law. This comparison of national legislation with EU legislation is referred to as screening. The purpose of the screening process is to determine the issues the negotiations need to address and create a foundation to evaluate the proceedings of the respective country in harmonizing the national legislation with the acquis communautaire. Formal negotiations are conducted on the basis of the screening and the respective candidate country and EU member states state their positions on issues which are to be negotiated. The European Union unanimously decides on the EU's common position on the basis of the draft negotiations defined and proposed by the European Commission. Subsequently, formal negotiations start.
Formal negotiations
Formal negotiations take place between EU member states and a candidate country. On the behalf of the EU, the negotiations are based on the common positions, which all member states have unanimously agreed upon on the basis of the European Commission's proposals. After agreement has been reached between the EU and the candidate country on an individual chapter, the respective chapter is considered closed (temporarily). The EU's legislation is divided into 33 chapters and every chapter is negotiated separately.
Before negotiations on individual chapters are opened, an unanimous agreement among the member states is required. The same requirements are to be fulfilled when closing individual chapters. Iceland has already adopted about three quarters of all internal market legislation and incorporated more or less 21 out of 33 chapters of the acquis communautaire into its legislation, through the 1994 EEA-agreement. Additionally, Iceland's legal environment is shaped by participation in European and international collaboration in other spheres as well.
Preparing the text of Accession Treaty
After negotiations on individual chapters have been concluded, the conclusion of the negotiations is to be transferred into a legal text. This task is conducted by a special working group of the Council, which later refers the text to the candidate country. This task is performed paralell to the negotiations on individual chapters and therefore it is not dependent on the outcome of the whole negotiations. An Accession Treaty is ready when all chapters have been closed this way.
Accession Treaty, ratification process and participation in the EU
When an Accession Treaty has been negotiated, the European Parliament needs to give its consent and the European Council must reach a unanimous decision on the acceptance of the new candidate country. In addition, the candidate country and individual member states must validate the Accession Treaty. As soon as an Accession Treaty has been concluded, the candidate country is regarded as an acceding country and has the right to participate in the work of the European Council and the European Parliament and other EU institutions as an active observer. The candidate country, however, does though not get a representative member in the European Commission or a judge at the European Courts until the entry into force of the Accession Treaty.
Information about Iceland's ratification process and other matters of opinion concerning constitutional matters are discussed in chapter IX of the report by the majority of the Foreign Affairs Committee (Proposal for a Parliamentary Resolution on application for Membership of the European Union).
