The Enlargement of the European Union is a great opportunity for European Countries to end the artificial divide that has split the continent for the past 60 years. Both, the EU and the candidate countries are able to profit economically and politically by the new enlarged domestic market.
             An Enlargement is not a new phenomenon for the Union. According to The History of the European Union, the Union has already experienced four enlargements in 1973, 1981, 1986 and 1995. With those enlargements the Union expanded from the six foundation members to currently fifteen member states. But the scope and the diversity of this enlargement is a huge challenge for the European Union. Thirteen candidate countries are seeking to join the Union. Ten countries already on 1st of May.
             Therefore this paper shows the criteria that the candidate countries must have achieved in order to join the European Union. It also points out the pre-accession programs and the benefits for accessing countries.
             Ten of the thirteen candidate countries have already met the requests of membership and they will join the Union on 1st of May. These accessing countries are Hungary, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. The other three countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) have not achieved the Criteria yet. Bulgaria and Romania are hopefully joining the Union by 2007 while Turkey is not negotiating its membership at the moment (Enlargement).
             The negotiation with six of the candidate countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus) for accessing the European Union started already in May 1998 . Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia started to negotiate with the European Union in December 1999.
             Before a candidate country is able to join the European Union, it must fulfill the membership Criteria of the Copenhagen European Council and the Madrid European Council. ¡§...