Enlargement policy and statistical cooperation

Article last updated: June 2024.

This article is part of a set of background articles which introduce the statistical cooperation activities of the European Union (EU) with non-member countries and focuses on EU enlargement policy, which is part of the Treaty on European Union.

Accession negotiations which are underway with some candidate countries concern the candidates' ability to fulfil the obligations of EU membership. They focus on the conditions and the timing of the candidates' adoption, implementation and application of EU rules, also known as the EU 'acquis'. To facilitate negotiations, the entire body of EU laws is divided into chapters, each generally corresponding to a policy area. For candidate countries, this is essentially a matter of agreeing on how and when to adopt and implement the EU rules and procedures. For the EU, it is an important process, as it allows European institutions to obtain guarantees on the date and the effectiveness of each candidate's implementation plans.

Enlargement policy has proven to be a powerful tool for societal transformation: countries that have already become members of the EU and those on the road to join the EU have undergone far-reaching changes through accession-driven democratic, societal and economic reforms. The integration of new EU Member States from the last three waves of enlargement has created a much larger internal market, thereby expanding the EU's economy. An enlarged EU may also be better positioned when addressing global challenges, such as climate change.

Full article

Requirements for joining the EU

The Treaty on European Union (Article 49) states that any European country may apply for membership if it respects the democratic values of the EU (respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights) and is committed to promoting them. A country's application should be submitted to the European Council (gathering the EU Member States' government representatives), which has to unanimously adopt its decision after consulting the European Commission and after receiving the consent of the European Parliament. Countries wishing to join the EU must respect a number of conditions for membership:

political — stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights as well as respect for and protection of minorities;
economic — a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competition and market forces in the EU;
the ability to take on the obligations (of membership) — including adherence to the goals of political, economic and monetary union.

In addition, the EU must be able to integrate new Member States, so it reserves the right to decide when it is ready to accept them. In the case of the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo ^[1]), additional conditions for membership were set out in the so-called stabilisation and association process (SAP), mostly relating to regional cooperation and good neighbourly relations.

Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine submitted applications for European Union membership in the first quarter of 2022. On 14-15 December 2023, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova and Ukraine, and granted the status of candidate country to Georgia.

Countries with the perspective of EU membership

The EU Member States have granted the perspective of EU membership to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Kosovo — these six are all from the Western Balkans — as well as Moldova, Georgia, Türkiye and Ukraine; they are currently at different stages of the enlargement process. The official candidate countries include all the previously mentioned countries except Kosovo, which is recognised as a potential candidate. A candidate country's status is granted from the day that its application is officially accepted by the European Council. Negotiations about accession start at a later stage, though. On 1 April 2016, a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Kosovo entered into force.

Accession negotiations

Accession negotiations were initiated with Türkiye in October 2005, with Montenegro in June 2012 and with Serbia in January 2014; the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania (March 2020), with Ukraine and Moldova (December 2023) and with Bosnia and Herzegovina (March 2024). The negotiations for North Macedonia and Albania officially began on 19 July 2022, with the first meeting in their respective intergovernmental conferences. The screening which precedes negotiations started in 2022 for both Albania and North Macedonia and in 2024 for Moldova and Ukraine.

Strategy for the Western Balkans

In February 2018, the European Commission adopted a strategy for the Western Balkans to provide an enlargement perspective for and enhanced EU engagement with the region. The strategy sets out an action plan with six flagship initiatives targeting specific areas of common interest: rule of law, security and migration, socio-economic development, transport and energy connectivity, digital agenda, reconciliation and good neighbourly relations.

In February 2020 the European Commission adopted the 2020 Communication 'Enhancing the accession process – A credible EU perspective for the Western Balkans'. The Communication proposes changes to reinvigorate the process based on four principles: more credibility, a stronger political steer, a more dynamic process, and greater predictability; and in October 2020 the Commission also adopted a comprehensive 'Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans', which aims to spur the long-term recovery of the region, a green and digital transition, foster economic regional cooperation, boost economic growth and support reforms required to move forward on the EU path.

On 8 November 2023, the European Commission adopted a new Growth Plan for the Western Balkans, with the aim of bringing the Western Balkan partners closer to the EU through offering some of the benefits of EU membership to the region in advance of accession, boosting economic growth and accelerating socio-economic convergence.

The role of official statistics in the enlargement process

Official statistics play a double role in the enlargement process:

the EU acquis in the field of statistics (Chapter 18 of the 35 chapters in which the negotiation process is organised) defines the harmonisation of statistics with EU standards and rules which have to be achieved in the pre-accession period;
they serve other EU policy areas by providing data for monitoring changes and assessing the impact of policies chosen;

The EU acquis in the field of statistics

The negotiation chapters encompassing the EU acquis are organised into six thematic clusters. Official statistics are part of cluster 1, Fundamentals, under Chapter 18. Statistics are also an integral part of other chapters as they facilitate the screening and monitoring of progress toward meeting the accession criteria. Before negotiations begin, the screening of each chapter enables the European Commission and the candidate country to assess the candidate country's level of preparedness. When negotiations on a chapter begin, the European Commission monitors the progress in applying EU legislation, and reports on it to the Council and the European Parliament. More specifically, the EU Commission services present an assessment of the progress in reforms towards the EU acquis in each candidate country and potential candidate, annually, in the so-called enlargement package country reports. The first enlargement package report on Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine was delivered in 2023.

For the EU, the Statistical Law Regulation (EU) 2015/759 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2015 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics of 29 April 2015 on European statistics defines the basic conditions, procedures and general provisions governing official statistics as well as the division of responsibilities between national and EU statistical authorities. This Statistical Law's revision reached political agreement in 2024. National statistical authorities are the national statistical offices, institutes, agencies or bureaus as well as other bodies in charge of producing and disseminating official statistics. The EU statistical authority is Eurostat.

Confidence in official statistics largely depends on adherence to the widely accepted guidelines established in the European statistics Code of Practice. This code sets out 16 key principles for the production and dissemination of official statistics in the EU and the institutional environment under which national and EU statistical authorities operate. The code is based on the United Nations' Fundamental principles of official statistics and the United Nations' Principles governing international statistical activities. The code adjusts these principles to the EU context and provides indicators to measure their implementation.

The EU acquis in the field of statistics requires a robust statistical infrastructure and includes legal frameworks, methodologies and data requirements across various statistical domains. Since the acquis is dynamic and evolves over time, the statistical systems of candidate countries and potential candidate must be reinforced to sustain their level of harmonisation and to integrate any updates to it'. The final objective of the EU Commission services, concerning the acquis in statistics, is to monitor and support the alignment of the statistics produced by the statistical systems of candidate countries and potential candidate with those of the ESS, ensuring consistency and quality of the statistics produced.

Eurostat plays an active role in the enlargement process.

Ensuring that the national statistical systems comply with the EU acquis in the field of statistics (Chapter 18). The statistical authorities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye and Kosovo, as well as Eurostat, regularly document the progress made towards the implementation of the EU acquis in statistics.
Providing technical assistance and support to national statistical authorities and other producers of official statistics. Several instruments have been established to achieve the objectives of Eurostat's strategy for statistical cooperation with the candidate countries and potential candidate. Some instruments — statistical training courses, traineeships, study visits, management training, and participation in meetings within the European statistical system (ESS) — aim to reinforce the capacity of national statistical systems to produce and disseminate harmonised, high-quality data in line with the European standards and to respond to user needs. This assistance can be structured either through multi-beneficiary programmes involving several recipient countries when synergies between countries can be established, or through bilateral national programmes tailored to address specific needs of individual countries.

In addition, Eurostat conducts peer reviews and sector reviews. The instrument for pre-accession assistance (IPA) is the financing instrument for assistance to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye and Kosovo on their way to membership. Currently, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine are supported with resources from the European Neighbourhood Policy. They also benefit from Eurostat capacity building activities within the ENP-East countries group.

Statistical requirements compendium

The legal basis, methodologies and data requirements of the EU acquis are presented in the Statistical requirements compendium. It summarises the key reference information for European statistical production in all statistical domains, grouped, since 2024, by an adapted version of the Classification of statistical activities (CSA) Rev. 2.0 2023.:

Demographic and social statistics;
Economic statistics;
Sectoral statistics;
Environment a statistics;
Cross-cutting statistics;
Statistical infrastructure and methodology.

It also includes the EU acquis related to basic legal acts.

Eurostat's IPA strategy with Western Balkans and Türkiye for the period 2021 – 2027

Candidate countries and potential candidate are not at the same level of development and are progressing towards an efficient and modern statistical system at different speeds. Basic principles are being followed and the institutional framework for producing statistics is already in place in most of them. Efforts therefore must focus on enhancing the availability, quality and comparability of statistics, especially in the areas that are indispensable for accession negotiations and for the society to measure progress in the development of the country. The IPA strategy with Western Balkans and Türkiye for the period 2021 – 2027 aims to ensure an efficient use of resources by focusing cooperation on those areas where improvements are most needed and by helping to make these achievements sustainable. The strategy, prepared in 2021, does not cover the three new enlargement countries: Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine. The timeframe for this strategy corresponds to the EU's multi-annual financial framework for 2021-2027 and to the implementation period for the IPA III; the latter is a unified instrument for EU pre-accession funding to Western Balkans and Türkiye. The objectives of the strategy are to:

Increase the production and dissemination of high quality statistical data;
Implement the European statistics Code of Practice;
Strengthen the administrative and management capacity of the national statistical systems;
Enhance regional statistical cooperation.

Data sources and publications

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye and Kosovo, are expected to increase the volume and quality of their data progressively, and to transmit these data to Eurostat in the context of the EU accession process. Western Balkans and Türkiye already provide a large set of data which are disseminated through various channels:

validated statistics are uploaded to Eurobase, Eurostat's free online reference database;
Statistics Explained articles covering specific statistical domains;
until 2019: a statistical book (paper version and free online version) with comparative tables and figures on a full range of thematic indicators with analytical text;
In addition, when available, harmonised data from the candidate countries (and sometimes also potential candidate) are also published along with data for EU Member States and EFTA countries in major Eurostat publications such as the Eurostat regional yearbook.

Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine provide as well data to Eurostat; however, at present, these data are not yet submitted to and validated by Eurostat's subject matter units following the same process as data from Member States, differently from data provided by Western Balkans and Türkiye, which are already validated by Eurostat's subject matter units. Data for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine is disseminated in Eurobase, mainly through the ENP-East domain; in a series of statistical articles on Statistics Explained; and in leaflets covering basic data or focusing on a particular theme. Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine will be progressively included in the enlargement countries publications.

Direct access to

Notes

↑ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

[1]