IMPLEMENTATION OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENT STANDARDS
IN ACCESSION COUNTRIES
- OBSERVATIONS OF A CONSULTANT -
ULRICH KARPEN
Prof. Dr., University of Hamburg Law School
This is a study on the Accession Process to the European Union in four countries of the Western Balkans: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, FYROM and Kosovo. They all are successor states of former Yugoslavia. Croatia is a member of the EU since 2013, after having successfully implemented the Copenhagen Criteria, as adopted by the European Council in 1993. The three other states are on their way to the EU, with different time horizons. One of the major problems of Croatia was to draft a new Law on General Administrative Procedure. In BiH constitutional issues are still under discussion. In FYROM a Manual of Secondary Legislation was required, followed by regulations under rule-of-law standards. Kosovo since 2008 has a Constitutional Court, which - next to interpreting the Constitution of the country - is integrating the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and adapting to the standards of other Constitutional Courts in Europe.
