Let me concentrate primarily upon the first of these three steps, thereby focusing upon those tasks the candidate countries are facing today and will face in the near future. In the period leading up to accession, the applicant countries will be confronted with two challenges.
First, the accession candidates will have to fulfill the economic conditions for membership in the European Union, as defined by the European Council in Copenhagen back in 1993. These conditions consist in establishing a functioning market economy and attaining sufficient competitiveness to participate in the single market.