Give a full critical account of the Copenhagen criteria. Consider, in Essay

Give a full critical account of the Copenhagen criteria. Consider, in particular, whether they might create double standards as some commentators have suggested - Essay Example Examination shows that the constitutional predicament of this enlargement causes the danger of double standards, as concealed methods are deemed to be used in order to protect the selectiveness of the EU. In order to have membership to the European Union, Member States and their institutions must expand on approaches that can manage the transaction connecting deeper integration between Member States and widening to include new candidate countries. Therefore, the debate is whether the European Union is providing generosity or has amplified these double standards [2]. The criteria developed at Copenhagen European Council (1993) requires that a country has to have the capacity to maintain democratic governance and human rights, have a working market economy, and be able to recognize and agree to the requirements and objectives of the European Union. Many of these fundamentals have been explained over the course of the last fifteen years by legislation of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament, in addition to European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice [3]. In spite of the dissimilarity among the old Member States of the European Union, the fifth enlargement was foreseeable as a new integrated Europe would not be able to limit itself to only Western Europe [4]. Therefore, the enlargement of the European Union can be seen as an amalgamated and incorporated development of Europe after the end of the Cold War, as the countries which were formerly linked to the Soviet Union or the Warsaw pact are now independent European countries, and also democratic, with a substantive market economy, and after working towards implementing membership criteria declared by the Copenhagen European Council in 1993, are able to join the European Union [2]. Therefore, the stipulations for membership of the European Union