Lake Ohrid. Photo: flickr/milachich
Lake Ohrid. Photo: flickr/milachich

This section offers close to 100 key texts and background documents covering Macedonia's EU accession process. Key documents on the EU's enlargement process can be found in ESI's special enlargement background document library.

 

Contractual Relations

The major accession process agreements between Macedonia and the EU:

 

Key European Council conclusions

The European Council, the highest decision making body of the EU, takes key decisions with regard to EU enlargement. Its hitherto most important decision regarding Macedonia's EU accession came in 2005:

 

Key documents prepared by the Macedonian government

Three key strategic documents inform the Macedonian government's current efforts to move closer to EU accession:

When Macedonia applied for EU membership in 2004, the European Commission provided its government with a questionnaire of more than 1,900 items. The answers to the questionnaire – which the Commission used as a basis for its opinion on Skopje's application – are an x-ray image of the state of affairs in Macedonia in 2004.

Answers of the Macedonian government to the EC Questionnaire (handed in on 14 February 2005):

 

Pre-accession funds

For the EU's 2007-2013 budget cycle the pre-accession programmes were merged into a single mechanism, the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA). Only official candidate countries like Macedonia have access to all five components of the instrument (potential candidates can only benefit from the first two components).

Earlier EC support was mainly channelled through the CARDS programme, designed for the Western Balkans in 2000.

INSTRUMENT FOR PRE-ACCESSION ASSISTANCE (IPA)

For multi-annual indicative financial frameworks, including information and financial data on all recipient countries, go to the respective section of ESI's background document library on EU enlargement.

You can find more Macedonia-specific documents on the five IPA components here:

COMPONENT I: TRANSITION ASSISTANCE AND INSTITUTION BUILDING

Project fiches for the Transition Assistance and Institution Building component can be accessed on the website of DG Enlargement.

COMPONENT II: CROSS-BORDER CO-OPERATION

COMPONENT III: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

COMPONENT IV: HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT

COMPONENT V: RURAL DEVELOPMENT (IPARD)

For the European Commission's annual reports on the all EU's pre-accession funds, click here.

CARDS

In 2000, various EU assistance programmes for the Western Balkans were streamlined into the Community Assistance for Reconstruction, Development and Stabilisation (CARDS) programme. CARDS was designed to support the Stabilisation and Association process.

 

EU monitoring reports

All official Commission reports on Macedonia, including the 2005 "opinion" on Macedonia's application, have been prepared by DG Enlargement.

 

Key EU strategy documents

As the second country of the Western Balkans (after Croatia), Macedonia became an official candidate for EU membership in December 2005. Starting from that year, all candidates and potential candidates were included in the annual strategy paper on EU enlargement issued by the European Commission.

 

Weblinks

A few webpages for further information and documents:

Share: What are these?