Accession partnerships are a pre-accession strategy instrument, which determines the candidate countries' particular needs on which pre-accession assistance should be targeted and provides a framework for: the short and medium-term priorities, objectives and conditions determined for each candidate country on the basis of the accession criteri [..]

In 1998, the Central and Eastern European applicant countries extended their European agreements into accession partnerships. These provided: - a single framework for priority areas for further work i [..]