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Croatia is a nation that shares borders with Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Its capital is Zagreb.

Croatia is a parliamentary republic in which the prime minister is the head of the government, and the president is the head of state. The government exercises its duties across three levels, the legislative, executive, and judicial.

Croatia joined the EU on the 1st of July 2013, after going through an accession period of 10 years. The journey was not a smooth one either. As a condition of joining, the government had to co-operate in prosecuting crimes that happened during the civil war during its break-up from Yugoslavia. It also had to address the issue of heavy pollution of the Danube, Drava, and Neretva rivers and the air pollution caused by metal industries that affected its air quality.

Croatia has reaped significant financial rewards from joining the EU, and its foreign trade has soared. In the five years after joining, Croatian exports rose by 56 per cent. The country was given access to 10.7 billion euros in grants from EU structural and investment funds. However, Croatia uses the national currency, the kuna, and not the euro.

Croatia has 12 representative members in the European Parliament who are elected by the Croatian citizens. It gained the 12th seat when the U.K. seats were reallocated after Brexit. Croatia also held the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first six months of 2020.

The country holds a special place in the EU because it is the most recently joined member country.

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Bulgaria is a Balkan nation encompassing the Black Sea coastline. Its culture is deeply rooted and defined by Greek, Slavic, Ottoman, and Persian influences. Its capital city is Sofia, and the official language is Bulgarian. Bulgaria is a unitary state with a centralized structure. It consists of 27 provinces and a metropolitan capital province and adheres to a parliamentary republican system.

Bulgaria has been a member country of the EU since the 1st of January 2007. The road to EU accession was never an easy one for this nation. Bulgaria started its journey later than other countries in post-communist Europe. Economic and financial instability prevailed in the country during much of the 1990s. The timely intervention of the World Bank and the IMF by introducing reform packages, together with financial support from them, went a long way in stabilising the economic and financial crises. This helped the nation to focus its agenda towards EU membership.

Bulgaria’s EU membership has tremendously boosted its economic infrastructure. As a result, the country’s EU membership enjoys high levels of public support despite some amount of initial Euroscepticism. Although Bulgaria uses the Bulgarian lev for its currency, its government has confirmed the country’s plans to adopt the euro as its official currency on the 1st of January, 2024.

The country holds 17 seats in the European Parliament and has 12 European Economic and Social Committee representatives. Bulgaria is one among the five EU countries that are not part of the Schengen Area. The other four are Croatia, Cyprus, Romania, and Ireland.

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Belgium is a western European country that adheres to a federal constitutional monarchy system. In this, the king is the head of state, and the prime minister is the head of government in a multi-party system. Decision-making powers are not centralized, but divided between 3 levels: the federal government, 3 language-based communities (Flemish, French, and German-speaking), and 3 regions (Flanders, Brussels Capital, and Wallonia). These three, levels of governance hold different responsibilities but are legally equal in power.

Belgium has been an EU member country since 1958 and a euro area member since 1999. It uses the euro as its currency. Belgium holds a unique and special position among the six founding nations that made European integration a reality. The nation is more popularly known as the ‘heart of Europe’ for many solid reasons.

Brussels, the official capital of Belgium, is the seat of most of the important institutions of the European Union. Although the city has not been officially conferred the status of EU’s capital, it definitely qualifies as its unofficial capital.

Belgium also communicates with the EU institutions through its permanent representatives based in Brussels.

Also, 21 out of the total European Parliament members hail from Belgium.

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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is composed of nine federal states. It is a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe. Vienna is Austria’s capital and largest city.

Austria joined the EU on the 1st of January 1995. The decision resulted from a successful five-year-long negotiation and support received by a national referendum held for the same.

Since its accession, the country has actively participated in all the EU institutions (European Parliament, European Commission, and Council of the European Union) and constructively shaped the EU’s development.

Austria has held the presidency of the Council of the European Union twice, one in 1998 and the other in 2006. By 2002, Austria retired the schilling, its former currency, and replaced it with the euro. Once again, in 2018, Austria held the presidency of the Council of Ministers for six months as part of the trio presidency of Estonia-Bulgaria-Austria.

The European Parliament alone has 19 members from Austria. In the Council of the EU, national ministers meet regularly to adopt EU laws and coordinate policies. Council meetings are regularly attended by representatives from the Austrian government, depending on the policy area being addressed. Austria also has 12 representatives on the European Economic and Social Committee.

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The European countries that join the EU are expected to follow the single currency, euro. For this, the member states have to satisfy a few economic criteria. However, there is no strict rule or rigid timeframe in which they have to do so or any mechanism to force them to adopt the euro.

This implies that countries can join the EU before accepting the euro as their currency. For instance, 8 of the 27 EU member states are yet to adopt the single currency.

There are four essential criteria to be satisfied before a member state absorbs the single currency. The requirements are: keeping inflation low and stable, ensuring that the public debt and the deficit are within the limits of EU rules, maintaining low-interest rates, and tying the national currency to the euro for at least two years without serious issues.

Denmark is currently the only EU nation that has chosen an opt-out from the system; it follows its own currency instead of the euro.

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The duration taken for the process is mainly dependent on the size, political and economic status of the candidate country, and several other yardsticks. These largely depend on the candidate country’s resources and its ability to reform its institutions and standards according to the EU criteria. The willingness by everyone to see the successful completion of the process also matters.

On an average, it takes just under five years from the opening of negotiations till the final accession. Austria, Finland, and Sweden took just under two years, making them the quickest nations to accede after talks. In contrast, Croatia took almost eight years from negotiations to finally becoming a member state.

The most credible recent candidate for EU membership was Iceland, which had applied for membership in 2009. By 2013, it had made astounding progress in the accession process. However, the Icelandic government placed the talks on hold, and the country formally withdrew its application in March 2015.

Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey are the five candidate countries currently undergoing the accession process.

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The accession of a country to the EU is governed by Article 49 of the treaty on the European Union.

The minutely detailed and time-consuming process requires adequate preparation from the applicant country and depends on the EU’s capacity to integrate a new member. Hence, there is a pre-accession period followed by an accession period consisting of four significant steps.

During the pre-accession period, the candidate country makes necessary modifications in its institutions, standards, and infrastructure to satisfy the criteria. Since the EU rules and regulations are enormous in magnitude, negotiations take considerable time to complete. The candidates are supported financially, administratively, and technically during this pre-accession period.

As mentioned, the accession process consists of four basic steps: application, candidate status, negotiations, and, finally, accession.

Any European country that feels it complies with the membership criteria, can apply to be an EU member. The Commission is then asked by the EU General Affairs Council (GAC) to assess whether or not that country meets the criteria. If they don’t, steps are recommended that need to be taken to do so. If a country does meet the criteria, the Commission recommends the GAC for approval and granting of official candidate status. The European Council subsequently endorses this decision, and the country officially becomes a candidate for EU membership.

Acquiring the status of an official candidate for the membership is a major step. After that the Commission negotiates with the candidate country. When the negotiations are successfully done, the Commission recommends the candidate country for membership. The member states and the newly joining country now sign the Treaty of Accession, which needs approval by the European Parliament and the Council. The national parliament of each EU member state should approve it, too.

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Accession to the EU is possible only if the prospective members abide by the terms articulated in Article 49 of the EU Treaty and the 1993 Copenhagen criteria.

Under Article 49, any country applying to become an EU member state must meet the following criteria: 1)Be a European state; 2) Respect and commit to promoting Article 2 values - including human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, human rights (specifically minority rights), pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality; 3) Have its application unanimously approved by the Council of the EU; 4) Have its application approved by a majority vote of the European Parliament.

The 1993 Copenhagen criteria pertain to specific additional requirements decided at the European Council meeting held in Copenhagen the same year. The requirements emphasize that the countries must have stable, functioning democratic institutions and protect the EU’s fundamental values as specified in Article 2.

They must also have well-functioning market economies with the ability to withstand competition in the EU market. The countries should also adopt and implement the fundamental laws as stated in the EU rulebook. There is no formal test of these commitments before application. The European Commission assesses suitability under these terms once an application is received. Candidate states may also be subject to other specific conditions.

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There is no denying that gaining membership in the EU is a complicated process. An EU membership ensures stability in the concerned countries by promoting democracy and economic development.

As more and more members build ties with the EU, it opens promising platforms that boost the political, economic, and security interests of the EU, both internally and globally.

A prime factor that has led to the expansion of the EU is that relatively more minor European countries feel that their interests are better served if they are part of the Union. An EU membership also provides the resources to modernize their economies and gain access to a large market for trade.

The EU funds play a vital monetary source for the prospective members to access payments to support their development.

The EU has always been a stabilizing force in Europe. It has been instrumental in supporting countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal in their transition from the clutches of dictatorship to the hands of democracy.

The EU has currently focused its energy on the western Balkan regions, including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia. It is hoped that EU membership will serve as an incentive to stabilize the region.

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Let us first know what the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement stands for, before learning about the transition period.

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is a treaty between the European Union, European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the United Kingdom signed on 24th January 2020, setting the terms of the withdrawal of the U.K. from the EU and Euratom. Euratom is an international organization established by the Euratom Treaty with the purpose of creating a specialist market for nuclear power in Europe. It is legally distinct from the EU.

The Treaty resulted from the Brexit negotiations, which were endorsed by the leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries and the then British Government led by Prime Minister Theresa May. The original version of the agreement was rejected by the House of Commons on three occasions, which led to the resignation of Theresa May as prime minister of the U. K. and the appointing of Boris Johnson as the new prime minister on 23rd July 2019. Under Johnson’s governance, a renegotiated version of the agreement was published a year later, on 17th October 2019, and came into force on 31st January 2020.

The Brexit transition period, which extended from January until 31st December 2020, was designed to provide time for the new relationship to take form. During this transition period, U.K. remained in the single market to ensure frictionless trade until a long-term relationship was agreed upon.

On 24th December 2020, the EU and U.K. negotiators reached a deal on the new relationship to be followed by the two parties. The EU and the U.K. have set out the terms of this deal in three agreements: The EU-U.K. Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the EU-U.K. Security of Information Agreement, the EU-U.K. Nuclear Cooperation Agreement.

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The term Brexit denotes the exit of Britain from the European Union. It is a portmanteau of the words Britain and Exit.

Brexit was a historical event on 31st January 2020 that marked the end of a 47 year-long relationship between the U.K. and the European Union. The United Kingdom has been a member of the European Economic Community since 1973. Later, when the ECC dissolved to form the European Union, the nation extended its membership to the latter.

The decision to leave the Union was not a sudden one. Eurosceptics had favoured the U.K.’s exit for quite some time, and the undercurrent was gaining momentum. This urged the then prime minister, David Cameron, to hold a referendum on whether U.K. should retain its membership or leave the EU. The referendum was held on 23rd June 2016, in which a majority of 51.89 per cent voters chose to leave the EU.

By early 2017, the British government started its legal withdrawal procedures by invoking Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) states that “Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements”.

Following Brexit, the EU law and the Court of Justice of the European Union no longer have supremacy over British laws, except in select areas concerning Northern Ireland.

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The U.K. had enjoyed a long relationship as a member state of the E.U. and its predecessor, the ECC, since 1973. However, all through these years, the nation had always maintained a distance and voiced its stance regarding EU and its rigid policies. For example, it refused to accept the single currency, euro, and retained its pound sterling currency while still being a member.

Britain’s political fraternity was divided in opinion, with one side favouring the EU and the other opposing the ideals. The 2008 financial crisis that affected many of the eurozone nations also ignited the opposition.

Another prominent reason that led to the exit was the uncontrolled surge of immigrants from poorer nations and the fear of refugees from different countries because of the EU’s open border policy. This further intensified the scepticism among voters and politicians. The U.K. refrained from joining the Schengen Agreement, which encouraged free entry at its internal borders.

The feeling that decisions about the U.K. had to be taken by the U.K. alone grew more assertive. Prime Minister David Cameron had endorsed that U.K. should remain within the EU. But, as the Brexit referendum saw a narrow majority opting to exit, he resigned and Theresa May took charge. A series of politically challenging negotiations with the EU followed, on the terms of departure and future relations, which lasted for four years.

Finally, in 2020, after much apprehensions, the U.K., which was then under Boris Johnson’s government, left the EU on the 31st of January.

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Euroscepticism or EU-scepticism is a European political doctrine that criticises the European Union (EU) and European integration and advocates disengagement from the same.

Euroscepticism questions the rigid bureaucratic structure of the EU and its favouritism towards elite member states. The belief that EU integration threatens national sovereignty and identity and its alleged lack of democratic legitimacy and transparency are other contributing reasons. The free-trade and open border policies of the EU that encourage high levels of migration are strictly opposed by the Eurosceptics. According to them, stricter immigration policies need to be imposed.

It has a historical background. World War II, which had shattered the national sentiments, made the re-building process of the European countries extremely difficult. Political and economic integration was widely seen as a path to reconciliation between the former enemies. This laid the foundation for the EEC and, later on, the EU.

The subsequent decades witnessed a steady progression toward creating a single organization with more and more members joining the EEC. However, the raised hopes towards faster political and economic integration were slowed down in 1992, when voters in Denmark rejected approval of the Maastricht Treaty, the founding document of the EU. France too, barely approved the treaty, with just 51 per cent of the vote favouring the treaty.

This was proof enough that waves of Euroscepticism were gaining unprecedented strength and prominence, much to the shock of the EU supporters.

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Euroscepticism embraces two broad approaches, soft Euroscepticism and hard Euroscepticism.

Soft Euroscepticism, or Euro realism, is a relatively sober approach that opposes the malfunctioning of certain EU institutions and seeks measures to reform these bodies. It strongly advocates that when nations merge with the EU’s economic and political policies, it also needs to ensure that each member nation’s sovereign, ethnic, ideological, political, and geographical identities are protected.

Italy’s Northern League is an example of soft Eurosceptics. It voiced the creation of an entirely new state that would include Italy’s wealthier northern regions and advocated for the return of the former Italian currency, lira.

Hard Euroscepticism or anti-European Unionism exhibits a more rigid approach. It strongly opposes European integration by all means and advocates withdrawal of membership from the EU. It perceives the EU institutions and its policies as completely unrealistic and impractical.

The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is an apt example of a hard Eurosceptic party. Following its inception in 1993, the party gained immense popularity for the measures it implemented in building an anti-immigration platform and catalysing the withdrawal of Britain from the EU.

It is to be noted that both UKIP and the Northern League served as members of the Europe Freedom & Democracy Group in the European Parliament. Other Eurosceptic parties include the National Front in France and the Dutch Party for Freedom in the Netherlands.

Recent years have witnessed Euroscepticism winning more public support at all levels helping it gain more acceptances in mainstream politics. This growth in strength has questioned the genuineness and popularity of the EU’s integration processes. The opposite of Euroscepticism is known as pro-Europeanism or European Unionism.

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On 30 March 2012, the European Union (EU) and Ukraine had initiated an Association Agreement that would establish a political and economic association between the parties. This included equal rights for workers, steps towards a visa-free movement of people, the exchange of information and staff in the area of justice, the modernisation of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, and access to the European Investment Bank.

However, towards the end of 2013, President Viktor Yanukovych and his government backed off from signing the agreement with the EU. Instead, the government chose closer ties with Russia, which was Ukraine’s second-largest trade partner. Russia had at the same time been pressing Ukraine to join the not-yet-formed Eurasian Economic Union.

This last-minute opting out from signing the agreement dimmed the possibility of Ukraine’s integration with the EU. A majority of the Ukrainians felt the decision was a violation of human rights and betrayal by the government. This ignited a country-wide protest in support of the integration, known as the Euromaidan crisis. The protesters called out for the resignation of Yanukovych’s government. Hundreds were killed and injured in the conflict, which is the bloodiest to have ever happened in Europe since the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. It eventually led to the Ukrainian ‘Revolution of Dignity’ and the expulsion of Yanukovych in February 2014.

The agreement was finally signed a few months later by the new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and came into force in September 2017. It is described as Ukraine’s “first but most decisive step” towards EU membership.

The term ‘Euromaidan’ is composed of ‘Euro’ for Europe and ‘Maidan’ for open space (Arabic word). It refers to the ample open space, by the name Maidan Nezalezhnosti, in the downtown of Kyiv, Ukraine, where the protests mostly took place.

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