European Council of Brussels, 16-17/12/2004

One of the most important topics discussed at the European Council on 16 and 17 December was the issue of enlargement.
The European Council welcomed the findings and recommendations included in the Commission’s regular reports on Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey, the strategy document for Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, its recommendation regarding Turkey and the document on issues arising from Turkey’s prospect of EU membership, as submitted by the Commission on 6 October 2004 to the Council and the European Parliament.
It expressed its desire to welcome Bulgaria and Romania to the EU from January 2007.
In the case of Croatia, the European Council noted with satisfaction Croatia’s progress in preparing for the start of accession negotiations. Confirming the conclusions of June 2004, it called on Croatia to take the necessary measures for full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and reiterated that the remaining indictee must be located and transferred to The Hague as soon as possible. Furthermore, it invited the Commission to submit to the Council a proposal for a negotiating framework with Croatia, taking full account of the experience of the fifth enlargement during its preparation. It requested the Council to agree on this framework, with a view to opening accession negotiations on 17 March 2005, provided that full cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is achieved.
Finally, regarding Turkey, the European Council recalled its previous conclusions on Turkey, in which, in Helsinki, it agreed that Turkey is a candidate state destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to the other candidate states and, subsequently, concluded that if it decides at the December 2004 Summit, on the basis of a report and recommendation from the Commission, that Turkey fulfills the Copenhagen political criteria, the European Union will open accession negotiations with Turkey without delay. The European Council invited the Commission to submit to the Council a proposal for a negotiating framework with Turkey, based on what is provided for accession negotiations, and asked the Council to agree on this framework in order to start negotiations on 3 October 2005.