Criteria for EU Membership, with Particular Reference to Southeast Europe

Conference topic

The first part provides a historical overview of changes in the conditionality requirements, i.e. the criteria for EU membership. Initially, there were no formal criteria; it was only required that the country in question be a European state. However, this does not mean that candidate countries did not face a demanding accession process. The accession process became increasingly complex with each subsequent enlargement.

Croatia is the most recent country to have successfully completed the negotiation and integration process and therefore represents the most relevant example for countries that are still undergoing the accession process. This applies in particular to the political criteria, and especially to Chapter 23, “Judiciary and Fundamental Rights.” The standards established by the EU during the negotiations with Croatia regarding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the fight against corruption, and the protection of human rights provide benchmarks against which countries currently in the accession process will be assessed. For this reason, Croatia’s experience with reforms is highly relevant and useful for meeting the criteria for EU membership.

Following an overview of Croatia’s experience of accession to the European Union, the new and revised accession methodology is analysed. The new methodology placed Chapters 23 and 24 at the centre of the negotiation process and linked progress in the other chapters to progress in these two chapters. In the event of stagnation in reforms in these areas, the possibility of suspending negotiations was introduced until such delays were addressed.

Finally, the last part examines the prospects of each candidate country on its path towards the European Union (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Serbia) and assesses their capacities to fulfil the membership criteria. It identifies the main challenges that each of these countries will face in the accession process and assesses which of them have the greatest prospects of being the first to join the European Union.

The conclusion presents several critical observations on the European Union’s enlargement policy with regard to the countries of Southeast Europe.

Speaker : Kristian Turkalj

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University of Croatia. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb. He earned his master’s degree from the same Faculty in 2000, with a thesis entitled “The Delimitation of the Territorial Sea between Croatia and Slovenia in the Bay of Piran.” He passed the bar exam in 2009 and defended his doctoral dissertation entitled “The Legal and Institutional Framework of the European Union for Combating Terrorism” in 2011. He is a member of the Academy of Legal Sciences of Croatia, the Association of Croatian Diplomats, and the Centre of Excellence of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. The Government of the Republic of Croatia on January 4, 2017 appointed him as State Secretary at the Ministry of Justice on 4 January 2017 and on April 28, 2017 as acting minister of justice. He held this position until November 2020. Afterwards, he served as an international consultant advising the Ministry of Justice of Kosovo. He is currently serving as Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Catholic University of Croatia.

He is the author of numerous academic and professional publications, including the book “The Bay of Piran – Delimitation of the Territorial Sea between Croatia and Slovenia.” His areas of academic and research interest include International Law, European Union Law, the Organization of the Judiciary, Administrative Law, and Artificial Intelligence.

Practical information

• Thursday, October 15, 2026 - from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.
• UCLy | Campus Saint-Paul | 10 place des archives 69002 Lyon
• Amphithéâtre Mérieux A029