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Eight countries are waiting in the wings to join the European Union. Croatia and Turkey started accession talks on 3 October 2005. Turkey could complete them in 15 years, Croatia by 2011. The other Balkan countries have been told they can join the EU one day, if they meet the criteria. These include democracy, the rule of law, a market economy and adherence to the EU's goals of political and economic union. Iceland is the latest country to seek EU membership.
ALBANIA
Albania is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest. It formally applied for membership on 28 April 2009. The European Commission says it is not yet ready to recommend visa-free travel to the EU for Albanians, largely because of delays in introducing biometric passports and weaknesses in border controls. In December 2009 EU governments said strengthening the rule of law and combating organised crime and corruption remained "urgent challenges" for Albania. The EU and Albania concluded a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), seen as the first step towards membership, in June 2006. The negotiations took three-and-a-half years - three times longer than they took in Croatia's and Macedonia's case. This is because the EU thought Albania was moving too slowly in the fight against corruption and organised crime. The EU also has doubts about Albania's energy sector, which suffers unstable supplies.
BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA
Bosnia-Hercegovina is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.
More than a decade after the 1992-5 war, it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June 2008. The EU was satisfied with progress in four key areas - police reform, co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal, public broadcasting and public administration reform. But the European Commission has not yet recommended visa-free travel to the EU because, like Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina does not yet fulfil the border security conditions. The EU maintains a peacekeeping force and a police mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where most Serbs live in the autonomous Republika Srpska. The Bosniak-Croat federation and Republika Srpska together form Bosnia-Hercegovina. Bosnia's ethnic quarrels remain a worry for the EU, along with corruption and organised crime. The Commission says Bosnia is still plagued by an "unstable political climate" and ethnic divisions. In December 2009 EU governments urged Bosnia-Hercegovina to "speed up key reforms", and regretted the absence of a "shared vision" for the country's future. Constitutional changes are required, to "create a functional state" in line with EU human rights standards, the governments said. In the same month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bosnia's electoral laws discriminated against Jews and Roma (Gypsies), because only Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs were allowed to run for high office.
CROATIA
Applied for membership: February 2003 Confirmed as candidate country: June 2004 Negotiations started: October 2005 A border dispute with neighbouring Slovenia - an EU member - held up Croatia's accession talks until early September 2009, when Slovenia agreed to lift its veto over the talks. Slovenia had demanded that the 17-year-old dispute be resolved before Croatia could join. But now Slovenia says Croatia's entry bid can proceed while the border issue is discussed separately. Croatia had hoped to conclude accession talks in 2009. Despite the delay, it could complete the negotiations next year and join the EU in 2011. The end of Lisbon Treaty ratification - after numerous hurdles and delays - helps to pave the way for Croatia's accession, because the EU's institutional changes can now go ahead. Back in 2005 accession talks were delayed by seven months as Croatia struggled to convince the EU it was doing its best to find war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina. He was arrested in the Canary Islands in December 2005. The EU is urging Croatia to reform its judiciary, root out corruption, make more progress on minority rights and keep co-operating with the war crimes tribunal. Organised crime remains a major concern. A prominent newspaper editor and his marketing chief were killed by a car bomb in Zagreb in October 2008. Earlier, the daughter of a prominent lawyer had been gunned down in the Croatian capital. The EU has set an "indicative and conditional" timetable for completing accession negotiations. Various "chapters" in the negotiations have opened, including economic policy, financial control, freedom to provide services, consumer and health protection, external relations.
ICELAND
Iceland - reeling from the collapse of its major banks - submitted its EU application on 23 July 2009. The European Commission says Iceland is already deeply integrated with the EU - it applies about two-thirds of EU laws - so it has less distance to cover than other applicants. But the EU is not offering any "shortcut". The North Atlantic island, home to just 320,000 people, will not join unless Icelanders support it in a referendum. That could be held in late 2011 or early 2012, officials say. The dramatic slump in the value of the Icelandic krona has made eurozone membership more attractive - and that cannot happen unless Iceland joins the EU. But some Icelanders think they would be better off outside the EU, fearing the impact of EU regulations on their traditional fisheries and whaling. Iceland's independence from continental Europe has provided fertile ground for Eurosceptics.
MACEDONIA
Applied for full membership: March 2004 Confirmed as candidate: December 2005 The European Commission has recommended that the EU open membership talks with Macedonia. It says the former Yugoslav republic has made "convincing progress" in police reform, tackling corruption and bolstering human rights. Since 19 December 2009 Macedonians have not needed visas to visit most EU member states - those in the Schengen zone. Hopes that accession talks would open in 2008 suffered a blow from election violence in June and a subsequent boycott of parliament by ethnic Albanian opposition parties. A bitter dispute with Greece over Macedonia's name continues to hamper the country's bids to join the EU and Nato. Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 using the temporary name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom). Greece argues that the name "Macedonia" cannot be monopolised by one country, and that doing so implies a territorial claim over the northern Greek region of the same name. In a November 2008 interview, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said "it is important that 125 countries worldwide have recognised Macedonia's constitutional name," and added: "we remain firm on our stance that only the Republic of Greece has a problem with Macedonia's constitutional name". A date of 2012 has been suggested as a possible target for Macedonia to join the EU.
MONTENEGRO
Montenegro submitted its membership application in December 2008. The European Commission is due to give its opinion on the application in 2010 - then EU governments will decide whether to go ahead with accession talks. Talks with the EU on a Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) began shortly after the country voted, in May 2006, to end its union with Serbia. The SAA was signed in October 2007. Montenegro's Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, has said he hopes his country will succeed in joining the EU before neighbouring Serbia or Macedonia. Since 19 December 2009 citizens of Montenegro have not needed visas to visit most EU countries - those in the Schengen zone. The EU says Montenegro must intensify its efforts to consolidate the rule of law, fight organised crime and corruption and protect freedom of expression.
SERBIA
On 22 December 2009 Serbia formally submitted its application to join the EU. Serbia's co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague has been rewarded in recent months, despite Belgrade's failure to arrest the former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic. On 7 December the EU unfroze an interim trade deal, which had been blocked for 18 months. The Dutch government had been demanding that Gen Mladic first be handed over to the tribunal. And since 19 December citizens of Serbia and two other former Yugoslav republics - Macedonia and Montenegro - have enjoyed visa-free travel to the Schengen area, which includes most of the EU. The visa waiver applies to those who hold biometric passports. Serbia's arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in July 2008, after nearly 13 years on the run, drew EU praise for the pro-Western government in Belgrade. Serbia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in April 2008, but it has not yet been ratified. EU governments plan to revisit that issue in mid-2010. Belgrade's ties with the EU have been strained by Kosovo's declaration of independence - a declaration recognised by most EU members. Serbia insists that Kosovo remains part of its territory. The EU wants to see better Serbian co-operation with its police and justice mission in Kosovo, called Eulex. Many Kosovo Serbs are reluctant to recognise the authority of Eulex. Serbia is unlikely to join the EU until at least 2015.
TURKEY
Applied for full membership: 1987 Confirmed as candidate: December 1999 Negotiations started: October 2005 Turkey met the last condition for accession talks in July 2005, when it extended a customs union with the EU to all new member states, including Cyprus. However, it failed to ratify the customs union and its ports and airports remain closed to Cypriot traffic. The EU responded, in December 2006, by freezing accession talks in eight out of 35 policy areas. In December 2009 EU governments reaffirmed the freeze, saying it would "have a continuous effect on the overall progress in the negotiations". "Turkey has not made progress towards normalisation of its relations with the Republic of Cyprus," they said, calling for progress "without further delay". Turkey's EU negotiations have been overshadowed by concerns about freedom of speech and democracy in Turkey, treatment of religious minorities, women's and children's rights, civilian control of the military and the Cyprus tensions. The European Commission has called on Turkey to strengthen democracy and human rights, underlining the need for deeper judicial reform. The EU has welcomed Ankara's moves to improve Kurdish rights and its efforts to normalise ties with neighbouring Armenia. France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and a number of other senior politicians in the EU want Turkey to have a partnership deal with the EU, rather than full membership. Some politicians worry that such a large, mainly Muslim country would change the whole character of the EU, while others point to the young labour force that Turkey could provide for an ageing Europe. The UK Foreign Office says it expects Turkey to be ready for membership "in a decade or so".
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