UEAPME - ENTER

Progress in detail

Every year the European Commission issues a Regular Report evaluating the progress of each of the candidate countries as EU enlargement approaches. The 2002 Regular Report concluded that the accession countries fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria and that all had functioning market economies. Having in mind the overall progress achieved, the European Commission concluded that “these countries will have fulfilled the economic and acquis criteria and will be ready for membership from the beginning of 2004”.

The accession countries have undertaken a wide-ranging legislative and administrative adjustment over the past few years in order to implement the acquis developed in the current Member States in the last few decades.

The last report^[1], released by the European Commission and presented on 5^th November 2003, shows that even if in general terms all conditions are in place for enlargement, a few areas in certain countries must be urgently strengthened before May 2004. This is true for the general administrative capacity in the new Member States, where there is still room for further improvement with regard to issues such as corruption, human resources, training (including language training) and budget, but also in other areas. Among them we can distinguish the following:

Policy Area	Overall situation	Need urgent reform
Internal Market	In general alignment is well advanced and functioning adequately. Those areas include: Capital Movements Anti-laundering rules Financial Services Data protection rules Company law Accounting rules Anti-trust State Aid	The Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia are significantly delayed in introducing the minimum training requirements, and mutual recognition rules for a number of professions (i.e healthcare professions). Slovakia does not comply with the production limitation conditions that apply for granting fiscal aid in the steel sector. European Commission to take measures.
Agriculture	No major foreseeable problems to apply the rules on state aid, quality and organic farming. Rural development measures are well developed. Most aspects of the veterinary and phytosanitary field are largely completed.	Lithuania and Poland are not taking the agreed measures for inspection and control of their fisheries fleet and for ensuring the application of EU resource and fleet management rules. In the field of veterinary and phytosanitary control, the adoption and implementation of the necessary veterinary legislation in Poland is a must. Also, insufficient progress has been achieved in Poland regarding the control of animal movement.
Transport	Alignment is advanced in the rail and inland waterways sectors, and in relation to trans-European transport networks.	The Czech Republic is not adequately implementing and enforcing the social and technical acquis relating to road transport, including aspects such as access to the profession and the market, working, driving, speed limitation devices, driving licences, etc.
Taxation	No difficulty should exist in applying the acquis on taxation (VAT, excise duties and direct taxation) by the time of accession. Most are also well prepared to implement administrative cooperation in the field of taxation and customs.	In Latvia there are important delays in computerisation and interconnectivity with the European Commission systems, which endanger the proper functioning of the customs union. This applies to the VAT Information Exchange System, which may not be fully operational until enlargement.
Social Policy and Employment	The level of alignment in these areas has progressed satisfactorily, including those on health and safety at work and labour law. EU policies relating to: Equal treatment of men and women, Employment, Social dialogue, Social inclusion, Social protection Are well comprehended.	Estonia has delayed many times the adoption of EU rules in the areas of labour law and equal treatment of women and men. Czech Republic, Malta and Poland must accelerate the completion of alignment with the acquis on health and safety at work and Estonia and Poland with labour law.
Environment	The new Member States are, in general, well on track to implement the legislation in this area, in particular on: Horizontal environmental legislation, Air quality, Waste management, Water quality, Chemicals, Genetically modified organisms, Noise, Nuclear safety, Radiation protection.	Estonia must increase efforts to complete legal alignment with EU rules on air quality, waste management, nature protection, industrial pollution and radiation protection. Other countries have specific areas that must be reformed: waste management in Malta, nature protection in the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Poland, industrial pollution and risk management in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and genetically modified organisms in Cyprus.
Justice and Home Affairs	Good progression on the whole involving the following areas: Schengen Action Plan Police cooperation Fight against crime, terrorism and drugs Customs cooperation Judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters Human rights instruments	Malta, Poland and Slovakia need to strengthen external borders and accelerate the Schengen Action Plan. Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Slovakia need to improve personal data protection. Cyprus, Poland and Slovakia must now complete alignment with EU visa policy, and Latvia and Lithuania with migration policy.
Others	Preparations are expected to be completed without major difficulties in the following chapters: Economic and Monetary Union Industrial Policy and the promotion of SMEs Science and Research Education and training Common Foreign and Security Policy Culture and audio-visual

For more information:

Economic overviews

Progress in detail