Accession criteria (Copenhagen criteria) – condițiile și principiile pe care trebuie să le respecte țările

care vor să devină membre UE: economie stabilă, instituții democratice, the capacity to effectively
implement the rules, standards and policies that make up the body of EU law (the 'acquis')

Acquis – corpul de legi UE

Common agricultural policy (CAP) - an area in which competence is shared between the European
Union (EU) and EU countries.

Democratic deficit - term used by people who argue that the EU institutions and their decision-
making procedures suffer from a lack of democracy and seem inaccessible to the ordinary citizen due
to their complexity.

Euro area statele cu monedă euro

‘Multi-speed’ Europe - term used to describe the idea of a method of differentiated integration
whereby common objectives are pursued by a group of EU countries both able and willing to
advance, it being implied that the others will follow later.

Qualified majority - A qualified majority (QM) is the number of votes required in the Council for a
decision to be adopted when issues are being debated on the basis of Article 16 of the Treaty on
European Union and Article 238 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Schengen (Agreement and Convention) - By the Schengen Agreement signed on 14 June 1985,
Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands agreed to gradually remove controls at
their internal borders and to introduce freedom of movement for all nationals of the signatory
countries, other EU countries and some non-EU countries.

Social dialogue - ´Social dialogue` describes the negotiations conducted by the social partners (i.e.
employers' and workers' organisations) in order to defend the interests of their members.

Subsidiarity - It aims to ensure that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen and that
constant checks are made to verify that action at EU level is justified in light of the possibilities
available at national, regional or local level.

White paper - White Papers are documents containing proposals for European Union (EU) action in a
specific area. In some cases, they follow on from a Green Paper published to launch a consultation
process at EU level.

The purpose of a White Paper is to launch a debate with the public, stakeholders, the European
Parliament and the Council in order to arrive at a political consensus.

ABSORPTION CAPACITY - the ability of a country or organization to receive aid and use it effectively.
Developing countries often lack this capacity. For example, a country may receive enough money to
enable all its children to attend primary school - but owing to a lack of teachers, lack of schools or a
poor administrative system, it is impossible to spend this money in the short term.

ACQUIS COMMUNAUTAIRE - Set of laws and engagements that define the Member States as the
European Union. Candidate countries must accept and integrate this acquis communautaire before
acceding to the European Union.

BENCHMARKING - This means measuring how well one country, business, industry, etc. is performing
compared to other countries, businesses, industries, and so on. The 'benchmark' is the standard by
which performance will be judged. Benchmarking is one of the techniques used in the 'Lisbon
process'
COHESION - This means (literally) 'sticking together'. The jargon term 'promoting social cohesion'
means the EU tries to make sure that everyone has a place in society

COHESION FUND - The Cohesion Fund part-finances action in the fields of the environment and
transport infrastructure of common interest with a view to promoting economic and social cohesion
and solidarity between Member States.

DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT

EUROLAND (de actualizat nr statelor membre) So far the countries involved are Austria, Belgium,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain,
Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City, Kosovo, Montenegro

FEDERALISM -
Broadly speaking, this means any system of government where several states form a unity and yet
remain independent in their internal affairs.

SCHENGEN LAND (= the Schengen area, the Schengen countries) - AT Austria BE Belgium BG Bulgaria
CH Switzerland CY Cyprus CZ Czech Republic DE Germany DK Denmark EE Estonia EL Greece ES Spain
FI Finland FR France HR Croatia HU Hungary IE Ireland IS Iceland IT Italy LI Liechtenstein LT Lithuania
LU Luxembourg LV Latvia MT Malta NL Netherlands NO Norway PL Poland PT Portugal RO Romania
SE Sweden SI Slovenia SK Slovakia UK United Kingdom

SUPRANATIONAL - This literally means 'at a level above national governments' – as distinct from
'intergovernmental' which means 'between governments'. Many EU decisions are taken at
'supranational' level in the sense that they involve the EU institutions, to which EU countries have
delegated some decision-making powers.

TRANSNATIONAL - This word is often used to describe cooperation between businesses or

organisations based in more than one EU country. Part of the EU's purpose is to encourage this cross-
border or 'transnational' cooperation.