11 October 2010 Last updated at 11:21 Eight countries are waiting in the wings to join the European Union.

Croatia and Turkey started accession talks on 3 October 2005. Turkey could complete them in 15 years, Croatia by 2011.

The other Balkan countries have been told they can join the EU one day, if they meet the criteria. These include democracy, the rule of law, a market economy and adherence to the EU’s goals of political and economic union.

Iceland is the latest country to seek EU membership.

EU expansion 1952-2007

Albania is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest. It formally applied for membership on 28 April 2009.

The European Commission has recommended visa-free travel to the EU for Albanians, and MEPs have voted to make this a reality in 2010. Delays in introducing biometric passports and weaknesses in border controls had been cited earlier as reasons to keep the visa requirement in place.

In December 2009 EU governments said strengthening the rule of law and combating organised crime and corruption remained “urgent challenges” for Albania.

The EU and Albania concluded a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), seen as the first step towards membership, in June 2006.

The negotiations took three-and-a-half years – three times longer than they took in Croatia’s and Macedonia’s case.

This is because the EU thought Albania was moving too slowly in the fight against corruption and organised crime. The EU also has doubts about Albania’s energy sector, which suffers unstable supplies.

Country profile: Albania

Bosnia-Hercegovina is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.

More than a decade after the 1992-5 war, it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June 2008. The EU was satisfied with progress in four key areas – police reform, co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal, public broadcasting and public administration reform.

The European Commission has recommended visa-free travel to the EU for Bosnians, and MEPs have voted to make this a reality in 2010.

The EU maintains a peacekeeping force and a police mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where most Serbs live in the autonomous Republika Srpska. The Bosniak-Croat federation and Republika Srpska together form Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Bosnia’s ethnic quarrels remain a worry for the EU, along with corruption and organised crime.

The Commission says Bosnia is still plagued by an “unstable political climate” and ethnic divisions.

In December 2009 EU governments urged Bosnia-Hercegovina to “speed up key reforms”, and regretted the absence of a “shared vision” for the country’s future.

Constitutional changes are required, to “create a functional state” in line with EU human rights standards, the governments said.

In the same month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bosnia’s electoral laws discriminated against Jews and Roma (Gypsies), because only Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs were allowed to run for high office.

Country profile: Bosnia-Hercegovina

Applied for membership: February 2003

Confirmed as candidate country: June 2004

Negotiations started: October 2005

A border dispute with neighbouring Slovenia – an EU member – held up Croatia’s accession talks until early September 2009, when Slovenia agreed to lift its veto over the talks.

Slovenia had demanded that the 17-year-old dispute be resolved before Croatia could join. But now Slovenia says Croatia’s entry bid can proceed while the border issue is discussed separately.

Croatia had hoped to conclude accession talks in 2009. Despite the delay, it could complete the negotiations in 2010 and join the EU in 2011.

The end of Lisbon Treaty ratification – after numerous hurdles and delays – paved the way for Croatia’s accession, because the EU’s institutional changes are now going ahead.

Back in 2005 accession talks were delayed by seven months as Croatia struggled to convince the EU it was doing its best to find war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina. He was arrested in the Canary Islands in December 2005.

The EU is urging Croatia to reform its home emergency cover judiciary, root out corruption, make more progress on minority rights and keep co-operating with the war crimes tribunal.

Organised crime remains a major concern. A prominent newspaper editor and his marketing chief were killed by a car bomb in Zagreb in October 2008. Earlier, the daughter of a prominent lawyer had been gunned down in the Croatian capital.

The EU has set an “indicative and conditional” timetable for completing accession negotiations.

Various “chapters” in the negotiations have opened, including economic policy, financial control, freedom to provide services, consumer and health protection, external relations.

Croatia country profile

Applied for full membership: July 2009

Negotiations started: July 2010

The EU has opened accession talks with Iceland.

But progress towards EU membership will depend on Iceland resolving a long-running motorhome insurance dispute with the UK and the Netherlands over savings lost by investors in the collapsed Icesave online bank.

In March 2010 Icelanders rejected a repayment plan, in a referendum. The UK and Dutch governments want Iceland to reimburse $5bn (£3.1bn) which they paid as compensation to Icesave investors.

Financial supervision is a key area that the EU expects Iceland to reform in order to qualify for membership.

Iceland is still reeling from the collapse of its major banks in 2008.

The European Commission says Iceland is already deeply integrated with the EU – it applies about two-thirds of EU laws – so it has less distance to cover than other applicants. But the EU is not offering any “shortcut”.

Iceland is in the Schengen zone, meaning its people enjoy passport-free travel to many European countries. Iceland also applies many of the EU’s single market rules.

The North Atlantic island, home to just 320,000 people, will not join unless Icelanders support it in a referendum. That could be held in late 2011 or early 2012, officials say.

The dramatic slump in the value of the Icelandic krona has made eurozone membership more attractive – and that cannot happen unless Iceland joins the EU.

But some Icelanders think they would be better off outside the EU, fearing the impact of EU regulations on their traditional fisheries and whaling.

Iceland’s independence from continental Europe has provided fertile ground for Eurosceptics, and recent opinion polls suggest a strong “no” camp.

Icelandic membership would give the EU a more significant role in the Arctic – a region rich in untapped energy and mineral resources.

Iceland country profile

Applied for full membership: March 2004

Confirmed as candidate: December 2005

The European Commission has recommended that the EU open membership talks with Macedonia.

It says the former Yugoslav republic has made “convincing progress” in police reform, tackling corruption and bolstering human rights.

Since 19 December 2009 Macedonians have not needed visas to visit most EU member states – those in the Schengen zone.

Hopes that accession talks would open in 2008 suffered a blow from election violence in June and a subsequent boycott of parliament by ethnic Albanian opposition parties.

A bitter dispute with Greece over Macedonia’s name continues to hamper the country’s bids to join the EU and Nato. Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 using the temporary name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom).

Greece argues that the name “Macedonia” cannot be monopolised by one country, and that doing so implies a territorial claim over the northern Greek region of the same name.

In a November 2008 interview, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said “it is important that 125 stress management online countries worldwide have recognised Macedonia’s constitutional name,” and added: “we remain firm on our stance that only the Republic of Greece has a problem with Macedonia’s constitutional name”.

A date of 2012 has been suggested as a possible target for Macedonia to join the EU.

Country profile: Macedonia

Montenegro submitted its membership application in December 2008. The European Commission is due to give its opinion on the application in 2010 – then EU governments will decide whether to go ahead with accession talks.

Talks with the EU on a Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) began shortly after the country voted, in May 2006, to end its union with Serbia. The SAA was signed in October 2007.

Montenegro’s Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, has said he hopes his country will succeed in joining the EU before neighbouring Serbia or Macedonia.

Since 19 December 2009 citizens of Montenegro have not needed visas to visit most EU countries – those in the Schengen zone.

The EU says Montenegro must intensify its efforts to consolidate the rule of law, fight organised crime and corruption and protect freedom of expression.

Country profile: Montenegro

On 22 December 2009 Serbia formally submitted its application to join the EU.

Serbia’s co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague has been rewarded, despite Belgrade’s failure to arrest the former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic.

On 7 December the EU unfroze an interim trade deal, which had been blocked for 18 months. The Dutch government had been demanding that Gen Mladic first be handed over to the tribunal.

And since 19 December citizens of Serbia and two other former Yugoslav republics – Macedonia and Montenegro – have enjoyed visa-free travel to the Schengen area, which includes most of the EU. The visa waiver applies to those who hold biometric passports.

Serbia’s arrest of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in July 2008, after nearly 13 years on the run, drew EU praise for the pro-Western government in Belgrade.

Serbia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in April 2008, but only in June 2010 did EU foreign ministers agree to put it into effect.

Belgrade’s ties with the EU have been strained by Kosovo’s declaration of independence – a declaration recognised by most EU members. Serbia insists that Kosovo remains part of its territory.

But a UN resolution in September 2010, in which Serbia dropped its demand to reopen negotiations on Kosovo’s status, signalled Belgrade’s willingness to meet EU conditions. It may also pave the way for direct Serbia-Kosovo talks.

The EU wants to see better Serbian co-operation with its police and justice mission in Kosovo, called Eulex. Many Kosovo Serbs are reluctant to recognise the authority of Eulex.

Serbia is unlikely to join the EU until at least 2015.

Country profile: Serbia

Applied for full membership: 1987

Confirmed as candidate: December 1999

Negotiations started: October 2005

Turkey met the last condition for accession talks in July 2005, when it extended a customs union with the EU to all new member states, including Cyprus.

However, it failed to ratify the customs union and its ports and airports remain closed to Cypriot traffic. The EU responded, in December 2006, by freezing accession talks in eight out of 35 policy areas.

In December 2009 EU governments reaffirmed the freeze, saying it would “have a continuous effect on the overall progress in the negotiations”.

“Turkey has not made progress towards normalisation of its relations with the Republic of Cyprus,” they said, calling for progress “without further delay”.

Turkey’s EU negotiations have been overshadowed by concerns about freedom of speech and democracy in Turkey, treatment of religious minorities, women’s and children’s rights, civilian control of the military and the Cyprus tensions.

The European Commission has called on Turkey to strengthen democracy and human rights, underlining the need for deeper judicial reform.

The EU has welcomed Ankara’s moves to improve Kurdish rights and its efforts to normalise ties with neighbouring Armenia.

The EU also welcomed the Yes vote in a Turkish referendum in September 2010, which gave the ruling AK Party the go-ahead to change the military-era constitution and bring it more into line with EU norms.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and a number of other senior politicians in the EU want Turkey to have a partnership deal with the EU, rather than full membership.

Some politicians worry that such a large, mainly Muslim country would change the whole character of the EU, while others point to the young labour force that Turkey could provide for an ageing Europe.

The UK Foreign Office says it expects Turkey to be ready for membership “in a decade or so”.

A chronology of key events: 1923 – Assembly declares Turkey a republic and Kemal Ataturk as president. 1928 – Turkey becomes secular: clause retaining Islam as state religion removed from constitution. 1925 – Adoption of Gregorian calendar. Prohibition of the fez. 1938 – President Ataturk dies, succeeded by Ismet Inonu. 1945 – Neutral for most of World War II, Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan, but does not take part in combat. Joins United Nations. 1950 – Republic’s first open elections, won by opposition Democratic Party. Military coups 1952 – Turkey abandons Ataturk’s neutralist policy and joins Nato. 1960 – Army coup against ruling Democratic Party. 1961 – New constitution establishes two-chamber parliament. 1963 – Association agreement signed with European Economic Community (EEC). 1965 – Suleyman Demirel becomes prime minister – a position he is to hold seven times. 1971 – Army forces Demirel’s resignation after spiral of political violence. 1974 – Turkish troops invade northern Cyprus. 1976 – Earthquake kills more than 5,000 people in western Van province. 1978 – US trade embargo resulting from invasion lifted. 1980 – Military coup follows political deadlock and civil unrest. Imposition of martial law. 1982 – New constitution creates seven-year presidency, and reduces parliament to single house. 1983 – General election won by Turgut Ozal’s Motherland Party (ANAP). PKK war 1984 – Turkey recognises “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.” Kurdistan Workers’ Party launches separatist guerrilla war in southeast. 1987 – Turkey applies for full EEC membership. 1990 – Turkey allows US-led coalition against Iraq to launch air strikes from Turkish bases. 1992 – 20,000 Turkish troops enter Kurdish safe havens in Iraq in anti-PKK operation. Turkey joins Black Sea alliance. 1993 – Tansu Ciller becomes Turkey’s first woman prime minister, and Demirel elected president. Ceasefire with PKK breaks down. 1995 – Major military offensive launched against the Kurds in northern Iraq, involving some 35,000 Turkish troops. Ciller coalition collapses. Pro-Islamist Welfare Party wins elections but lacks support to form government – two major centre-right parties form anti-Islamist coalition. Turkey enters EU customs union. 1996 – Centre-right coalition falls. Welfare Party leader Necmettin Erbakan heads first pro-Islamic government since 1923. 1997 – Coalition resigns after campaign led by the military, replaced by a new coalition led by the centre-right Motherland Party of Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz. 1998 January – Welfare Party – the largest in parliament – banned. Yilmaz resigns amid corruption allegations, replaced by Bulent Ecevit. 1999 February – PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan captured in Kenya. 1999 July – Ocalan receives death sentence, later commuted to life imprisonment. 1999 August – Devastating earthquake with epicentre at Izmit in Turkey’s heavily populated northwest kills 17,000 people. 1999 November – Second quake in same region kills hundreds more. Into the new millennium 2000 – Ahmet Necdet Sezer takes over from Suleyman Demirel as president. 2001 January – Diplomatic row with France after French National Assembly recognises the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide. 2001 May – European Court of Human Rights finds Turkey guilty of violating the rights of Greek Cypriots during its occupation of northern Cyprus. 2001 June – Constitutional Court bans opposition pro-Islamic Virtue Party, saying it had become focus of anti-secular activities. New pro-Islamist party Saadet is set up by former Virtue Party members in July. 2001 November – British construction firm Balfour Beatty and Impregilo of Italy pull out of the controversial Ilisu dam project. Swiss bank UBS follows suit in February 2002. 2002 January – Turkish men are no longer regarded in law as head of the family. The move gives women full legal equality with men, 66 years after women’s rights were put on the statute books. 2002 March – Turkish and Greek governments agree to build a gas pipeline along which Turkey will supply Greece with gas. 2002 July – Pressure for early elections as eight ministers including Foreign Minister Cem resign over ailing PM Ecevit’s refusal to step down amid growing economic, political turmoil. Cem launches new party committed to social democracy, EU membership. 2002 August – Parliament approves reforms aimed at securing EU membership. Death sentence to be abolished except in times of war and bans on Kurdish education, broadcasting to be lifted. Islamist party victorious 2002 November – Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AK) wins landslide election victory. Party promises to stick to secular principles of constitution. Deputy leader Abdullah Gul appointed premier. 2002 December – Constitutional changes allow head of ruling AK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to run for parliament, and so to become prime minister. He had been barred from public office because of previous criminal conviction. 2003 March – AK leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins seat in parliament. Within days Abdullah Gul resigns as prime minister and Erdogan takes over. Parliament decides not to allow deployment of US forces ahead of war in Iraq but allows US use of Turkish air space. It authorises dispatch of Turkish forces into Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. 2003 May – More than 160 people, many of them schoolchildren trapped in a dormitory, die in an earthquake in the Bingol area. 2003 June-July – Eyeing future EU membership, parliament passes laws easing restrictions on freedom of speech, Kurdish language rights, and on reducing political role of military. Istanbul attacks 2003 November – 25 people are killed and more than 200 injured when two car bombs explode near Istanbul’s main synagogue. Days later two co-ordinated suicide bombings at the British consulate and a British bank in the city kill 28 people. 2004 January – Turkey signs protocol banning death penalty in all circumstances, a move welcomed in EU circles. 2004 February – More than 60 people killed when apartment block in city of Konya collapses. 2004 March – At least two people killed in a suspected suicide attack on a building housing a Masonic lodge in Istanbul. 2004 May – PKK says it plans to end a ceasefire because of what it calls annihilation operations against its forces. 2004 June – State TV broadcasts first Kurdish-language programme. Four Kurdish activists, including former MP Leyla Zana, freed from jail. Nato heads of state gather for summit in Istanbul. 2004 July – Three die in car bomb attack in southeastern town of Van. Authorities accuse the PKK of involvement which it denies. 2004 September – Parliament approves penal reforms introducing tougher measures to prevent torture and violence against women. Controversial proposal on criminalising adultery dropped. EU talks 2004 December – EU leaders agree to open talks in 2005 on Turkey’s EU accession. The decision, made at a summit in Brussels, follows a deal over an EU demand that Turkey recognise Cyprus as an EU member. 2005 January – New lira currency introduced as six zeroes are stripped from old lira, ending an era in which banknotes were denominated in millions. 2005 May – Parliament approves amendments to new penal code after complaints that the previous version restricted media freedom. The EU welcomes the move but says the code still fails to meet all its concerns on human rights. 2005 June – Parliament overturns veto by secularist President Sezer on government-backed amendment easing restrictions on teaching of Koran. 2005 July – Six killed in bomb attack on a train in the east. Officials blame the PKK. 2005 October – EU membership negotiations officially launched after intense bargaining. 2005 November – Multi-billion-dollar Blue Stream pipeline carrying Russian gas under the Black Sea to Turkey opens in the port of Samsun. 2006 April – At least a dozen people are killed in clashes between Kurdish protesters and security forces in the south-east. Several people are killed in related unrest in Istanbul. 2006 May – Gunman opens fire in Turkey’s highest court, killing a prominent judge and wounding four others. Thousands protest against what they perceive as an Islamic fundamentalist attack. 2006 June – Parliament passes new anti-terror law which worries the EU and which rights groups criticise as an invitation to torture. 2006 July – Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline opened at ceremony in Turkey. 2006 August-September – Bombers target resorts and Istanbul. Shadowy separatist group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAC) claims responsibility for some attacks and warns it will turn “Turkey into hell”. 2006 30 September – Kurdish separatist group, the PKK, declares a unilateral ceasefire in operations against the military. 2006 December – EU partially freezes Turkey’s membership talks because of Ankara’s failure to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic. 2007 January – Journalist and Armenian community leader Hrant Dink is assassinated. The murder provokes outrage in Turkey and Armenia. Prime Minister Erdogan says a bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of expression. Secularist protests 2007 April – Tens of thousands of supporters of secularism rally in Ankara, aiming to pressure Prime Minister Erdogan not to run in presidential elections because of his Islamist background. Ruling AK party puts forward Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as its candidate after Mr Erdogan decides not to stand. He narrowly fails to win in the first round. 2007 May – Parliament brings forward national elections to 22 July to try end the standoff between secularists and Islamists over the choice of the next president. Parliament gives initial approval to a constitutional change allowing the president to be elected by a popular vote, but the amendment is vetoed by President Sezer. Tension mounts on Turkey-Iraq border amid speculation that Turkey may launch an incursion to tackle Kurdish rebels. Bomb blast in Ankara kills six and injures 100. PKK denies responsibility. 2007 July – AK Party wins parliamentary elections. 2007 August – Abdullah Gul is elected president. 2007 October – Diplomatic row with United States after a US congressional committee recognises the killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire as genocide. Parliament gives go-ahead for military operations in Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. Voters in a referendum back plans to have future presidents elected by the people instead of by parliament. 2007 December – Turkey launches a series of air strikes on fighters from the Kurdish PKK movement inside Iraq. Headscarf dispute 2008 February – Thousands protest at plans to allow women to wear the Islamic headscarf to university. Parliament approves constitutional amendments which will pave the way for women to be allowed to wear the Islamic headscarf in universities. 2008 July – Petition to the constitutional court to have the governing AK Party banned for allegedly undermining the secular constitution fails by a narrow margin. 2008 October – Trial starts of 86 suspected members of a shadowy ultra-nationalist Ergenekon group, which is accused of plotting a series of attacks and provoking a military coup against the government. 2009 February – Protesters marking the 10th anniversary of the arrest of Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the banned Kurdish PKK movement, clash with police in south-east Turkey. Prominent Kurdish politician Ahmet Turk defies Turkish law by giving speech to parliament in his native Kurdish. State TV cuts live broadcast, as the language is banned in parliament. 2009 June – Trial starts of a further 56 people in connection with the alleged ultra-nationalist Ergenekon plot to bring down the government. 2009 July – President Abdullah Gul approves legislation proposed by the ruling AK Party giving civilian courts the power to try military personnel for threatening national security or involvement in organised crime. PM Tayyip Erdogan holds a rare meeting with the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party, Ahmet Turk, as part of efforts to solve the Kurdish problem politically. Rapprochement 2009 October – The governments of Turkey and Armenia agree to normalise relations at a meeting in Switzerland. Both parliaments will need to ratify the accord. Turkey says opening the border will depend on progress on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 2009 December – The government introduces measures in parliament to increase Kurdish language rights and reduce the military presence in the mainly-Kurdish southeast as part of its “Kurdish initiative”. The Constitutional Court considers whether to ban the Democratic Society Party over alleged links to the PKK, in a move that could derail the initiative. 2010 January – Newspaper carries report on alleged 2003 “Sledgehammer” plot to destabilise country and justify military coup. Head of armed forces, Gen Ilker Basbug, insists that coups are a thing of the past. 2010 February – Nearly 70 members of the military are arrested over alleged “Sledgehammer” plot. Thirty-three officers are charged with conspiring to overthrow government. 2010 March – US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee passes resolution describing killing of Armenians by Turkish forces in World War I as genocide, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador briefly. Constitutional reform 2010 April – Parliament begins debating constitutional changes proposed by the government with the stated aim of making Turkey more democratic. The opposition Republican People’s Party says the Islamist ruling party is seeking more control over the secular judiciary with some of the proposals. 2010 May – Relations with Israel come under severe strain after nine Turkish activists are killed in an Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla attempting to reach blockaded Gaza. 2010 July – Istanbul court indicts 196 people, including serving and former senior military officers, accused of plotting to overthrow the government. PKK leader Murat Karayilan says it is willing to disarm in return for greater political and cultural rights for Turkey’s Kurds. Turkey refuses to comment. 2010 September – Referendum on constitutional reform backs amendments to increase parliamentary control over the army and judiciary. Critics see it as attempt by the pro-Islamic government to appoint sympathetic judges.