FORMAL AND INFORMAL (‘LATENT’) CRITERIA FOR EU MEMBERSHIP: ANALYTICAL REVIEW

This article considers formal and informal (‘latent') criteria for EU membership. The author analyzed the geographical and political criteria of the Maastricht Treaty and focuses on the drawbacks of inaccuracy in defining the geographical criterion, which may lead to unequal treatment of the EU candidate countries when applying for EU membership. The Copenhagen criteria were also given detailed consideration. The author specified the content of the political and economic criteria. Special attention was drawn to the difficulties in understanding the term of the ‘membership' criterion (EU acquis) and the importance of the Madrid (institutional) criterion. The latter means that the EU candidate countries must set up appropriate governing institutions and judicial bodies to justify the efforts of the European Union bodies and national governments and prevent the applicant country from fulfilling their obligations under the association agreement. ‘Latent' criteria of membership are not considered to be less important than the official ones.