European Union

Croatia resumed accession talks with the European Union on Friday after an almost one-year freeze caused by a border row with Slovenia, a breakthrough which the EU said was a "win-win-win" situation.But the Union said after talks with Turkey, which also hopes to join the EU, that Ankara still had plenty of urgent work to do on reforms and made clear it would face criticism in an EU report this month on its progress towards membership.The EU accession drive is an anchor for reform in candidate countries, and financial markets in Turkey are particularly sensitive to any signs its efforts may be flagging.The resumption of talks with Croatia, after EU member Slovenia lifted a veto it imposed last December over the border row, has raised its hopes of becoming the 28th EU member state.

In an interview with WAZ before meeting Mr Berisha, Mr Füle made it clear that the country needs to improve the functioning of its political system.He suggested that the commission might have additional questions once it studies the current answers. "There are issues- and one particular - that makes the whole process more difficult and it is the stability of political institutions in Albania," Mr Fule said."I visited recently Albania and expressed deep concerns about the parliament still not being able to play fully its role." The centerpiece of the commission's opinion will be Albania's compliance with the so-called Copenhagen criteria, which make a country eligible to join the EU. These criteria include having institutions to preserve democratic governance and human rights, a functioning market economy, and readiness to meet the obligations of EU membership. Member states, which have the final say on the issue, differ on the Albania's readiness.

The EU accession process of Croatia, Turkey and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was high on the CoR agenda Wednesday evening. After hearing from Štefan Füle, Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, the CoR adopted its opinion on enlargement strategy and the main challenges for the candidate countries tabled by rapporteur Georgios Papastergiou, Prefect of Pieria (EL/EPP). The debate among CoR members focused in particular on the progress made by Turkey and the relations between Turkey and Greece. The opinion assesses the progress made by each of the candidate countries on the road to accession and voices the CoR's considerable concern that many of the political commitments made by the candidate countries are not sufficiently transposed into concrete action on the ground.

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha delivered in Brussels a copy of his country's completed European Union pre-accession questionnaire, and faced criticism over the country's deadlocked political situation from the EU enlargement commissioner, the Balkan Insight Web site reported Thursday.

On a visit to Brussels yesterday (14 April), Berisha delivered the answers to an EU questionnaire about the country's readiness to join the European Union (EurActiv 17/12/09).Berisha has been at the centre of Albania's political life for the last twenty years, first as president, then as leader of the opposition and now as prime minister, a position to which he was re-elected in 2009.Speaking at an event in the European Parliament organised by the Robert Schuman Foundation, Berisha pleaded the case for his country's EU accession and provided numerous examples of tough measures to crack down on organised crime and corruption.

Addressing the national parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina during an official visit to Sarajevo on Wednesday (15 April), the Croatian president extended condolences and sympathy to every victim of the 1992-1995 war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH), emphasising that every life lost was a loss for everybody.He said he would travel to Ahmici and Krizancevo Selo in the Lasva Valley on Thursday to pay his respects to victims "whose only sin was that they belonged to the other side and were different".

He added that a new era had come in which the mistakes from the past times should be recognised and a new course should be set bringing lasting peace, stability and prosperity to the region.Josipovic said a common European future is the best solution, adding that he was confident his country would soon become a European Union member. He underlined Croatia's support for its neighbours' EU membership bid."The European Bosnia-Herzegovina is a vital national interest of Croatia," Josipovic said.

This book poses two pertinent questions: First, if a European executive order is emerging, how can we empirically see it? Second, if a European executive order is emerging, how can we explain everyday decision-making processes within it? The goal of this book is two-fold: First, it identifies key institutional components of an emergent European executive order. The nucleus of this order is the European Commission. The Commission, however, is increasingly supplemented by a mushrooming parallel administration of EU-level agencies and EU committees. This book provides fresh empirical survey and interview data on the everyday decision-making behaviour, role perceptions, and identities among European civil servants who participate within these institutions. Secondly, this book claims and empirically substantiates that an emergent European executive order is a compound executive order balancing a limited set of key decision-making dynamics. One message of this book is that an emergent European executive order consists of a compound set of supranational, departmental, epistemic, and intergovernmental decision-making dynamics. Arguably, a compound European executive order transforms the inherent Westphalian order to the extent that intergovernmentalism is transcended and supplemented by a multidimensional mix of supranational, departmental and/or epistemic dynamics. This book also theoretically explores conditions under which these decision-making dynamics gain prevalence. It is argued that the decision-making dynamics emerging within an emergent European executive order are conditioned by the formal organisation of its composite parts and by the patterns of social interaction that emerge among its civil servants. Political processes and political systems can neither be adequately understood nor explained without including the organisational dimension of executive orders.

A senior Greek official has indicated that Athens is ready to accept the name 'Northern Macedonia' for its northern neighbour, in a development that could bring an end to the 19-year-old title dispute that has hampered Skopje's EU membership ambitions.

The Greek administration also insists that the issue must be resolved before Skopje can enter into EU accession discussions, a process that requires unanimous support from the bloc's full complement of members.

Less than one year after the watershed ruling from Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court that empowered Germany’s parliament to trump EU law, Germany is using the ruling to force the EU to conform to its will. The issue Germany has chosen to test this extraordinary power not given to any other EU member nation is Iceland’s bid to join the EU. The EU’s decision to consider Iceland as an official candidate was expected to be made in a late March summit, following a favorable recommendation from the EU commission. It was delayed, however, to give the German parliament time to examine the commission’s opinion. For Iceland to be considered as an official candidate for EU membership, several German parliamentary committees must consent to the move.

It is interesting that the first time Germany has forced the EU to consult the Bundestag in an expansion of EU power is in the matter of enlargement—not even if a nation will become an actual member, but in such a trivial matter as whether it will be considered an official candidate. Just look at Turkey’s bid for membership to see how meaningful being an official candidate is. This area of EU power typically doesn’t have a direct impact on any of the current EU members, and so Germany chose to try out its new power in an uncontroversial way. This is apparent by the lack of headlines devoted to Germany’s first use of its national “supremacy clause.” The other heavyweights of the EU, France and Britain, are not calling foul, and none of the other member nations seem concerned that the EU’s enlargement policy was just hijacked by Germany.

The Serbian parliament on Wednesday passed a landmark resolution condemning the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims, ending years of denial about the killings, although it avoided using the term "genocide". "The parliament of Serbia strongly condemns the crime committed against the Bosnian Muslim population of Srebrenica in July 1995, as determined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling," the text says.

Proposed by the ruling coalition of pro-Western President Boris Tadic, the resolution was adopted by 127 of the 173 parliamentarians present in the room, after 13 hours of debate. The lawmakers also expressed "their condolences and an apology to the families of the victims because not everything possible was done to prevent the tragedy."

To make progress in membership talks with the EU, Turkey must implement reforms and support a solution of the Cyprus issue, Stefan Fule, the new EU Enlargement Commissioner tells Deutsche Welle.

Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle deliberately left early from a regional summit in Slovenia this weekend, signalling that the European Commission's patience with the Western Balkans has its limits.

On a visit to Albania, Füle used unusually tough language, warning Tirana that a prolonged political stalemate would harm the country's EU accession prospects

From Tirana, Füle went to Brdo pri Kranju, a resort in Slovenia, to attend – and make an early departure – from a regional conference on the European future of the Western Balkans. The conference was boycotted by Serbian President Boris Tadić due to the presence of Kosovo Prime Minister Hasim Thaçi. Belgrade had warned it would only attend international conferences where Kosovo is represented under its UNMIK heading, as the country was a UN protectorate before unilaterally declaring independence in February 2008 (EurActiv 08/03/10).

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia (Reuters) - Seven Balkan states urged the European Union at a summit on Saturday to stay committed to enlargement, but Serbia's refusal to attend alongside an independent Kosovo exposed deep regional divisions.

Abstract: The European Union finally succeeded in ramming through introduction of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009. The treaty was touted by the powers in Brussels as the vehicle that would create the long-awaited "single phone line" to Europe. Lisbon was to streamline the gargantuan EU bureaucracy and make communication between the two sides of the Atlantic smooth and tidy. Instead, the mess is worse than before, with five EU "presidents" tripping over each other and confusing Washington with ill-defined, overlapping, and flat-out confusing roles and foreign policy objectives. The Lisbon Treaty essentially allows the EU a foreign policy power-grab, the driving force of which is the notion that the countries of Europe will be stronger collectively than they are separately. But sovereignty cannot be traded for influence, and the EU's attempts to do so could threaten the security of Europe-- and of the United States.

Commentary about the Bosnia-Herzegovina is today dominated either by a focus on crises, which talks up the risk of violence, or an obsession with the EU enlargement process, which exaggerates the EU’s leverage in the region.

As the EU Enlargement commissioner I am glad over improvement of Serbia’s perspective in the context of the EU membership. The success of enlargement was strongly echoed. The enlargement transformed my country and introduced the Middle and Eastern Europe into the EU.

Improved regional cooperation and good neighboring relations represent yet another huge challenge that Serbia has to deal with as well as any other country aspiring to join the EU. Problems that occurred after disintegration of Yugoslavia such as refugees, displaced people and border demarcation must not be left aside. Another crucial issue is bringing to justice the war crimes suspects. Courts for war crimes established in Serbia remain the essential element of that effort. Searching for truth is fundamental step towards reconciliation. Now we are looking forward and I hope that Serbia shall remain dedicated to reform agenda. Reforms are of use to all citizens of Serbia and not only because of joining the EU. Serbia that is well prepared for joining the Union shall make it not only bigger but stronger as well.

The issue of whether Iceland should reimburse the UK and the Netherlands €3.9bn lost by British and Dutch savers in the Icesave crash is a bilateral one and should not affect the country's EU accession prospects, Enlargement Commissioner Štefan Füle told the European Parliament yesterday (8 March).

The birth of the European External Action Service, one of the most anticipated innovations of the Lisbon Treaty, will be a difficult one, admitted a top European Commission official yesterday (4 March).

Implicitly, he appeared to confirm that the blueprint, already drafted by Ashton's committee, was encountering difficulties in some member countries. A "long discussion" had taken place at the level of EU member-state ambassadors (Coreper) yesterday, he said, and talks were due to continue at the informal foreign ministers' meeting in Cordoba, Spain, tomorrow (5 March). The European Parliament will also have a say, he added. But recruiting staff from the member countries will take time, Vale de Almeida said, adding that upgrading the European Commission's existing network of foreign delegations will also take "a few months". Speaking to EurActiv, Vale de Almeida said that if the decision was taken by the end of April as planned, he expected the service to start work by the end of the year.

Stefan Fule, the new EU commissioner for enlargement and the European Neighborhood Policy, says the European Union is looking to keep its relations with neighbors on a pragmatic footing. Fule also recommends pragmatism to the EU's neighbors in their relations with Russia, but says the countries must remain free in choosing their own future. In an interview with RFE/RL's Brussels correspondent, Ahto Lobjakas, the commissioner also said the EU would not accept the emergence of any new states in the Balkans.

RFE/RL: Let's start with your job. As commissioner responsible for enlargement and the Neighborhood Policy, you function as part of a new setup put in place under the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which includes the high representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton. So what's the difference between what you do and what Ashton does?

Dieses Buch liefert erstmalig im deutschsprachigen Raum eine systematische und aktuelle Grundsatzanalyse aller relevanten Entwicklungen in Bosnien-Herzegowina seit Dayton bis 2009. Es zeigt systematisch die "Fallen" von Dayton auf, nennt die Gründe für die anhaltende Ethnopolitik, liefert eine überzeugende Erklärung für die Schwächen der internationalen Gemeinschaft bei der Demokratisierung Bosniens und seziert jene Faktoren, die den Europäisierungsprozess behindern.