[ Western Balkans and EU ]

The Austrian presidency saw the

launch of Bosnia-Herzegovina's and Serbia's SAA, Albania's signature of the SAA agreement on 12th June (cf. BIRN report), and the conclusion of the first

negotiation chapters with Croatia and Turkey (cf. this blog, 26.6.2006).

On the Finnish agenda enlargement will be a key issue (cf. EurActiv, 23.6.2006): "Enlargement will be discussed in December, with a view to reaching a new consensus. With regard to individual countries, the main issues are the accession timetable for Bulgaria and Romania, membership negotiations with Turkey and Croatia, and the overall situation in the Western Balkans."

For more details, here the "enlargement" chapter of the Preliminary agenda for Finland’s Presidency
of the EU (pdf):

During Finland’s EU Presidency, Bulgaria and Romania's progress towards meeting the
accession criteria will be monitored. In the monitoring reports on Bulgaria and Romania’s
preparedness for membership which the Commission published on 16 May, it expressed the
view that the two countries could accede at the beginning of 2007, provided they honoured
outstanding commitments and took the urgent measures highlighted in the Commission
reports. The European Council will examine the matter in June on the basis of the
Commission assessment. The Commission will publish new monitoring reports no later than
the beginning of October 2006; these will inform the assessment of the countries’ ability to
join the Union at the beginning of next year.

Accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey will continue in accordance with general
enlargement principles: the same criteria apply for all candidate countries and progress in
the negotiations depends on their own merits. Of crucial importance during Finland’s
Presidency is the handling of the Commission’s screening reports which will compare
Croatian and Turkish legislation with EU legislation. Depending on how much progress is
made in processing the reports, benchmarks may need to be set for the closing and opening
of certain negotiating chapters, and indeed the time may come to close or open certain
chapters.

The EU has also agreed to review Turkey’s progress in implementing the Additional Protocol
to the Ankara Agreement in 2006. The time for this review may well be October/November
2006. The handling of this matter may have a very significant impact on Turkey’s EUaccession
negotiations.

If the general enlargement debate scheduled for 2006 does not take place during the
Austrian Presidency, it must be held during Finland’s. Finland is willing to hold the debate.
The discussions could be based on the Commission’s enlargement papers.

Link: Teija Tiilikainen: A transition Presidency? An inside view of Finland’s second Presidency of the EU, July-December 2006, 15.6.2006