Entry into the European Union is regulated by three sets of formal requirements 1 : -According to the "Copenhagen criteria" new members must have a stable democracy, follow the rule of law, observe appropriate standards of human rights, and must protect minorities; -They must have a functioning market economy; and most importantly -The acceding states must agree to the obligations of EU membership which includes adherence to the aims of political and economic union. This means that they have to

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... fully accept the "acquis communautaire". This legal corpus of the EU has by now grown to a large size, involving no less than 16,000 pages of text.