Stabilisation and Association Process
In talks with countries that have expressed a wish to join the European Union, the EU typically concludes Association Agreements in exchange for commitments to political, economic, trade, or human rights reform in that country. In exchange, the country may be offered tariff-free access to some or all EU markets (industrial goods, agricultural products, etc.), and financial or technical assistance.
Contents
Overview
Stabilisation and Association agreements are part of the EU Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP) and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). At present, the countries of the Western Balkans are the focus of the SAP. Specific Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAA) have been implemented with various Balkan countries which explicitly include provisions for future EU membership of the country involved. SAAs are similar in principle to the Europe Agreements signed with the Central and Eastern European countries in the 1990s and to the Association Agreement with Turkey.
SAAs are based mostly on the EU's acquis communautaire and predicated on its promulgation in the cooperating states legislation. The depth of the policy harmonization expected by SAA is less than for EU member states; some policy areas in the Acquis may not be covered by a given SAA.
The EU's relations with the Western Balkans states were moved from the "External Relations" to the "Enlargement" policy segment in 2005. As of 2015, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia are officially recognized as candidates for membership. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are not recognised as candidate countries, but as "potential candidate countries".[1]
As of June 2015, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia have SAA's in force. Croatia formerly had a SAA, but it lapsed when they acceded to the EU in 2013.
In addition, Kosovo, whose limited recognition has complicated its relationship with the EU, has initialled a SAA.[2] It's SAA would be the first signed after the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty, which conferred a legal personality to the EU.[3][4] As a result, the EU representative in Kosovo has said that "unlike SAA with other countries of the region, this one will be exclusively the EU agreement. The EU will co-sign it as a legal entity."[5] The agreement will not need to be individually ratified by each member state.[6] The representative went on to say that "since Kosovo is not recognized by the five member states, we had to issue a directive saying that the signing of the agreement will not signify that the EU or any of the countries recognize Kosovo as a state."[5] Kosovo signed the SAA with EU on October 27 2015.[7] [8]
Stabilisation and Association Process
Event | Macedonia [9] | Croatia [10] | Albania [11] | Montenegro [12][Note 1] | Bosnia and Herzegovina [14] |
Serbia [15][Note 2] | Kosovo* [Note 3] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SAA negotiations start | 2000-04-05 | 2000-11-24 | 2003-01-31 | 2005-10-10 | 2005-11-25 | 2005-10-10 | 2013-10-28[17] |
SAA initialled | 2000-11-24 | 2001-05-14 | 2006-02-28 | 2007-03-15 | 2007-12-04 | 2007-11-07 | 2014-07-25[18] |
SAA/IA signature | 2001-04-09 | 2001-10-29 | 2006-06-12 | 2007-10-15 | 2008-06-16 | 2008-04-29 | 2015-10-27[19] |
Interim Agreement: | |||||||
EC ratification | 2001-04-27 | 2002-01-30 | 2006-06-12 | 2007-10-15 | 2008-06-16 | 2009-12-08 | N/A [Note 4] |
SAP state ratification | 2001-04-27 | 2002-01-30 | 2006-10-09 | 2007-11-14 | 2008-06-20 | 2008-09-22 | N/A [Note 4] |
entry into force | 2001-06-01 | 2002-03-01 | 2006-12-01 | 2008-01-01 | 2008-07-01 | 2010-02-01 | N/A [Note 4] |
Deposit of the instrument of ratification: | |||||||
SAP state | 2001-04-27 | 2002-01-30 | 2006-11-09 | 2007-11-13 | 2009-02-26 | 2008-09-22 | (2016)[21][22] |
Austria | 2002-09-06 | 2002-03-15 | 2008-05-21 | 2008-07-04 | 2009-09-04 | 2011-01-13 | N/A |
Belgium | 2003-12-29 | 2003-12-17 | 2008-10-22 | 2010-03-29 | 2010-03-29 | 2012-03-20 | N/A |
Bulgaria | entered the EU later | 2008-05-30 | 2009-03-13 | 2010-08-12 | N/A | ||
Croatia | entered the EU later | N/A | |||||
Cyprus | entered the EU later | 2008-05-30 | 2008-11-20 | 2009-07-02 | 2010-11-26 | N/A | |
Czech Republic | entered the EU later | 2008-05-07 | 2009-02-19 | 2009-07-23 | 2011-01-28 | N/A | |
Denmark | 2002-04-10 | 2002-05-08 | 2008-04-24 | 2008-06-25 | 2009-05-26 | 2011-03-04 | N/A |
Estonia | entered the EU later | 2007-10-17 | 2007-11-22 | 2008-09-11 | 2010-08-19 | N/A | |
Finland | 2004-01-06 | 2004-01-06 | 2007-11-29 | 2009-03-18 | 2009-04-07 | 2011-10-21 | N/A |
France | 2003-06-04 | 2003-06-04 | 2009-02-12 | 2009-07-30 | 2011-02-10 | 2012-01-16 | N/A |
Germany | 2002-06-20 | 2002-10-18 | 2009-02-19 | 2009-11-16 | 2009-08-14 | 2012-02-24 | N/A |
Greece | 2003-08-27 | 2003-08-27 | 2009-02-26 | 2010-03-04 | 2010-09-20 | 2011-03-10 | N/A |
Hungary | entered the EU later | 2007-04-23 | 2008-05-14 | 2008-10-22 | 2010-11-16 | N/A | |
Ireland | 2002-05-06 | 2002-05-06 | 2007-06-11 | 2009-06-04 | 2009-06-04 | 2011-09-29 | N/A |
Italy | 2003-10-30 | 2004-10-06 | 2008-01-07 | 2009-10-13 | 2010-09-08 | 2011-01-06 | N/A |
Latvia | entered the EU later | 2006-12-19 | 2008-10-17 | 2009-11-12 | 2011-05-30 | N/A | |
Lithuania | entered the EU later | 2007-05-17 | 2009-03-04 | 2009-05-04 | 2013-06-26 | N/A | |
Luxembourg | 2003-07-28 | 2003-08-01 | 2007-07-04 | 2009-06-11 | 2010-12-22 | 2011-01-21 | N/A |
Malta | entered the EU later | 2008-04-21 | 2008-12-11 | 2010-01-07 | 2010-07-06 | N/A | |
Netherlands | 2002-09-09 | 2004-04-30 | 2007-12-10 | 2009-01-29 | 2009-09-30 | 2012-02-27 | N/A |
Poland | entered the EU later | 2007-04-14 | 2009-02-06 | 2010-04-07 | 2012-01-13 | N/A | |
Portugal | 2003-07-14 | 2003-07-14 | 2008-07-11 | 2008-09-23 | 2009-06-29 | 2011-03-04 | N/A |
Romania | entered the EU later | 2009-01-15 | 2010-01-08 | 2012-05-22 | N/A | ||
Slovakia | entered the EU later | 2007-07-20 | 2008-07-29 | 2009-03-17 | 2010-11-11 | N/A | |
Slovenia | entered the EU later | 2007-01-18 | 2008-02-07 | 2009-03-10 | 2010-12-07 | N/A | |
Spain | 2002-10-04 | 2002-10-04 | 2007-05-03 | 2009-03-12 | 2010-06-15 | 2010-06-21 | N/A |
Sweden | 2002-06-25 | 2003-03-27 | 2007-03-21 | 2009-03-11 | 2009-09-14 | 2011-04-15 | N/A |
United Kingdom | 2002-12-17 | 2004-09-03 | 2007-10-16 | 2010-01-12 | 2010-04-20 | 2011-08-11 | N/A |
European Communities or European Union and Euratom |
2004-02-25 | 2004-12-21 | 2009-02-26 | 2010-03-29 | 2015-04-30 | 2013-07-22 | (2016)[21] [Note 5] |
SAA entry into force | 2004-04-01 | 2005-02-01 | 2009-04-01 | 2010-05-01 | 2015-06-01 | 2013-09-01 | (2016)[19] |
EU membership (SAA lapsed) | (?) | 2013-07-01 | (?) | (?) | (?) | (?) | (?) |
Notes
(brackets): earliest possible date
N/A: Not applicable.
- ↑ Montenegro started negotiations in November 2005 while a part of Serbia and Montenegro (SiM). Separate technical negotiations were conducted regarding issues of sub-state organizational competency. A mandate for direct negotiations with Montenegro was established in July 2006. Direct negotiations were initiated on 26 September 2006 and concluded on 1 December 2006.[13]
- ↑ Serbia started negotiations in November 2005 while part of SiM, with a modified mandate from July 2006.
- ↑ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the Brussels Agreement. Kosovo has been recognised as an independent state by 108 out of 193 United Nations member states. The European Union remains divided on its policy towards Kosovo, with five EU member states not recognizing its independence. The EU launched a Stabilisation Tracking Mechanism for Kosovo on 6 November 2002 with the aim of aligning its policy with EU standards. On 10 October 2012 the European Commission found that there were no legal obstacles to Kosovo signing a SAA with the EU, as independence is not required for such an agreement.[16]
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 No Interim Agreement associated with Kosovo's SAA was concluded.[20]
- ↑ Kosovo's SAA was the first signed after the entry into force of the Lisbon treaty, which conferred a legal personality to the EU. As a result of transfer of competence from the member states to the European Union, the agreement is directly between Kosovo and the EU and Euratom, but the member states will not be a party individually.[17][23][24]
See also
- Future enlargement of the European Union
- European Neighbourhood Policy
- European Union Association Agreement
- Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (SP for SEE)
- Central European Free Trade Agreement
- SAp country statistics
References
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- ↑ http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2015&mm=11&dd=02&nav_id=95909
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