Checking Legislation (Screening)
Most of the negotiation work is not done in Brussels, but at home.
Negotiations start with the “screening” process. This is a detailed, systematic presentation and examination of all EU legislation so that the candidate country fully understands what is expected and required of it and the European side can see how far the candidate meets its membership criteria and what remains to be done.
This process involves expert officials from the candidate country and the European Commission. Each negotiation chapter is screened separately, but the process does allow screening of a number of chapters in parallel.
For an update on the current status of the screening process, please click here
The screening process has effectively four stages:
Stage one: Detailed explanation of the acquis and all its implications by the European Commission;
Stage two: National experts explain the situation in Turkey and present their position;
Stage three: The Commission writes a screening report for the Member States, recommending that negotiations on a chapter be opened – or not;
Stage four: Member States in the European Council decide whether or not to open the chapter for negotiations.
Last update: 24.6.2008