Community Acquis

Community acquis and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of Community acquis provided by the European Union Commission: The Community acquis is the body of common rights and obligations which bind all the Member States together within the European Union. It is constantly evolving and comprises:

• the content, principles and political objectives of the Treaties;

• the legislation adopted in application of the treaties and the case law of the Court of Justice;

• the declarations and resolutions adopted by the Union;

• measures relating to the common foreign and security policy;

• measures relating to justice and home affairs;

• international agreements concluded by the Community and those concluded by the Member States between themselves in the field of theUnion’s activities.

Thus the Community acquis comprises not only Community law in the strict sense, but also all acts adopted under the second and third pillars of the European Union and the common objectives laid down in the Treaties. The Union has committed itself to maintaining the Community acquis in its entirety and developing it further. Applicant countries have to accept the Community acquis before they can join the Union. Derogations from the acquis are granted only in exceptional circumstances and are limited in scope. To integrate into the European Union, applicant countries will have to transpose the acquis into their national legislation and implement it from the moment of their accession.

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Incorporation of the Community acquis and the Treaties of the European Union

Description of Incorporation of the Community acquis provided by the European Union Commission: The Essen European Council (December 1994) called on the Commission to present a White Paper on the preparation of the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe for integration into the Union’s internal market. The White Paper, which was presented at the Cannes European Council in June 1995, contained an indicative programme for the alignment of the Central and Eastern European countries’ legislation with that of the internal market. It provided that these countries would establish priorities in order to incorporate the Community rules and that they would be helped in this work by a technical assistance office (TAIEX), particularly in order to obtain information on Community legislation. The incorporation and implementation of all Community legislation are the main challenges which the applicant countries face. They require the administrations and the legal systems to be strengthened, and the infrastructure of the applicant countries to be drastically adapted to conform to Community standards, particularly on environmental questions, transport, energy and telecommunications. To facilitate these considerable adjustments, pre-accession aid is provided to the applicant countries. The accession negotiations for the applicant countries began in March 1998. The first step was to evaluate each applicant country’s legislation for compatibility with the Community rules (screening process). This evaluation then constituted the basis for the second stage, bilateral negotiations between the Union and each applicant. In some areas, the applicant countries have been granted transition periods between their accession and the time when they are capable of fully implementing the Community acquis. However, any such transition periods are limited in their scope and duration and subject to very strict conditions.

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