This means a country that has applied to join the European Union. Once its application has been officially accepted, it becomes a candidate country.For further details, see EU portal.

A committee made up of an odd number of members (at least three) with the necessary technical and administrative expertise to give an informed opinion on tenders or grant applications.

Meetings of the European Council are sometimes referred to as European (or EU) 'summit' meetings, because they bring together the EU's heads of state or government. Some countries are represented by their Prime Minister, others by their President, some by both. It depends on their Constitution.

This usually means 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 [..]

This is a candidate country that has met the Copenhagen criteria and has completed negotiations for joining the European Union.

Becoming a member of the EU following a process of alignment with EU norms.

Any country seeking membership of the European Union (EU) must conform to the conditions set out by Article 49 and the principles laid down in Article 6(1) of the Treaty on European Union. Relevant criteria were established by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 and strengthened by the Madrid European Council in 1995. To join the EU, a new Memb [..]

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 [..]

This is a French term meaning, essentially, "the EU as it is" – in other words, the rights and obligations that EU countries share. The "acquis" includes all the EU's treaties and laws, declarations and resolutions, international agreements on EU affairs and the judgments given by the Court of Justice. It al [..]

Works and acts to be done (and means to be used) in order to reach the expected results. They summarise the action programme of the project.