This is no longer possible at the national level alone. To master both these challenges, the EU has begun to translate two strategic projects into action: The Union is seeking the accession of additional states, especially Central and Eastern European states. At its meeting in Luxembourg in December 1997, the European Council will decide with which states the EU can commence negotiations on accession. The candidates are Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Cyprus.All the candidates know that membership in the EU is tied to strict political, economic and legal criteria which the European Council spelled out in Copenhagen in 1993. All must be in a position to adopt the acquis communautaire, in other words, the entire body of rules, regulations and arrangements which the ECSC, EEC, EURATOM, EC and EU have created since 1952. The basis for the negotiations on accession, which presumably will commence at the beginning of 1998, will be the European Commission’s statements of its position on each individual application.

The Maastricht Treaty on European Union designated 1 January 1999 as the latest date for commencement of the final stage of economic and monetary union. It furthermore spelled out the conditions for accession to the monetary union, which are also termed “convergence criteria”:

^The inflation rate may not be more than 1.5 percent above the currency depreciation rate of the three Member States with the greatest price stability.

>As a matter of principle, the budget deficit may not exceed three percent, and the total national debt 60 percent, of a country’s total economic output (gross domestic product).