Friday 19 October 2012

The European Commission’s Annual Enlargement Package

On 10 October 2012, the EC adopted its annual enlargement package – a collection of documents that provide updates on the progress made in countries covered by enlargement policy.

The main components are an overall strategy paper, and individual progress reports for each country. The strategy paper covers a bit of context and then goes on to the key challenges and how the EC intends to deal with them. It then summarises the progress that has been made, according to country and gives information about the financial assistance offered through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). The strategy paper ends with conclusions and recommendations; some general, and some country-specific. The country reports cover the progress made on all aspects of the acquis communautaire, so they do not go into great detail but highlight areas that still need work and others where sufficient progress has been made – they do not mention development cooperation specifically; but external relations are included.

The entire enlargement package can be found on the European Commission website.

Information provided by Rebecca Steel-Jasińska, TRIALOG

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