What is an EU candidate country?
What is an EU candidate country? A country applying to become a member state of the European Union. Candidate country status is conferred by the European Council on the basis of an opinion from the European Commission, drawn up following an application for membership of the European Union (EU) by the country concerned. How many countries are official EU candidates for membership? There are five recognised candidates for membership of the European Union: Turkey (applied in 1987), North Macedonia (applied in 2004), Montenegro (applied in 2008), Albania (applied in 2009) and Serbia (applied in 2009). All have started accession negotiations....