Conclusions the Determinant Role of the Baltic States’ History and International Legal Status

Abstract

The December 1997 Luxembourg European Council confirmed the multi-layer strategy, which was clearly designed to tackle the storm of criticism from those countries that had been set aside by the Commission Opinions. The announcement of the 'accession process', comprising all applicant Central and Eastern Europe Countries (CEECs) and Cyprus, counterbalanced the approval of the Commission's proposed differentiation. The enhanced pre-accession strategy established a comprehensive legal framework for supporting and monitoring the situation in the applicant countries. The Accession Partnerships (APs), originally proposed by the European Commission in Agenda 2000 (cf. supra), constituted the key legal instruments of the 'enhanced pre-accession strategy. The carrot of accession and the mechanisms of conditionality included in the pre-accession legal instruments placed the EU in a privileged position to monitor and influence the domestic policy choices of the candidate countries.Keywords: accession partnerships (APs); candidate countries; enhanced pre-accession strategy; European Commission