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Welcome to the web site of the OSI EU monitoring project, focusing on minority rights, corruption and independence of the judiciary in ten EU accession countries. This site is intended as a comprehensive internet resource for project researchers and anyone interested in the political dimension of the EU accession process. The site consists of forty plus pages and can be navigated by topic or country from the navigation bar on the left. 

EU Accession: Monitoring the Political Criteria - A Project of the Open Society Institute

(September 2000)

The Open Society Institute (OSI), is contracting partner institutions and individuals to monitor selected aspects of the European Union (EU) accession process in the ten candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe. The goals of this monitoring are broadly as follows:

- to highlight and promote public education in each of the accession states about the EU accession process;
- to help ensure that the EU's annual evaluations of conditions in the accession states, as well as its ultimate decisions on accession, are made transparently on the basis of accurate facts;
- to evaluate and promote transparency in the methods of EU assistance to the accession states, and thereby to identify possible areas in which OSI and other funders may help the relevant governments and the EU carry out their mission of promoting speedy compliance with Copenhagen criteria; and
- to develop indigenous, long-term capacity in each of the accession states to undertake effective monitoring of human rights and rule of law issues.

As established at a meeting of the European Council in Copenhagen in 1993, in order to qualify for membership in the EU, candidate countries must satisfy three sets of criteria: political (stability of institutions guaranteeing "democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and the respect for and protection of minorities"); economic (the existence of a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressures and market forces in the EU); and administrative (ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adoption and implementation of the acquis communautaire). Each year, the European Commission publishes reports assessing the progress of the candidate countries in meeting the above criteria. OSI aims to complement and feed into the Commission's own reports. The OSI reports will draw upon relevant expertise in the fields on which it will focus; base its reports on detailed standards by which progress will be measured; utilise information from non-governmental sources; and maintain a fully independent approach.

Reflecting the interests of the Open Society network, monitoring will focus on three components of the Copenhagen political criteria: the rights of minorities, the independence of the judiciary, and corruption. In its autumn 1999 Regular reports on progress towards accession, the European Commission identified each of these as major issues of concern in virtually all candidate countries, stating:

"All countries need to continue with their reforms of the judiciary and persevere in their fight to root out corruption. The treatment of minorities demands continued attention in all of the candidate countries…. Prejudice in many of the candidate countries continues to result in discrimination against the Roma in social and economic life." ("Regular Report from the Commission on Progress towards Accession", IP/99/751, October 13, 1999).

OSI aims to publish high-quality reports on conditions in each of the candidate countries, timed in such a manner as to contribute to the European Commission's own monitoring and to stimulate constructive debate in each country about relevant aspects of the accession process. Research will proceed simultaneously in all three substantive areas, with final publication dates dependent upon the respective progress of each project. In addition, OSI will launch a website containing updated and comprehensive information on resources, institutions and developments of interest to policymakers and scholars in each of the subject areas at issue.