HC Deb 16 November 2000 vol 356 c770W
Mr. Cash

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the volume of acquis communautaire applicant states need to adopt before they can join the EU.[138723]

Mr. Vaz

As in all previous enlargements, new members of the EU must be able to implement the acquis communautaire in full on accession. The candidate country's acceptance of the acquis may give rise to technical adjustments, and exceptionally to non-permanent transitional measures. These adjustments and transitional measures are the subject of the accession negotiations currently under way with 12 countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).