The Community acquis or acquis communautaire (/ˈækiː kəˈmjuːnətɛər/; French: [aˌki kɔmynoˈtɛːʁ]), sometimes called the EU acquis, and often shortened to acquis, is the accumulated legislation, legal acts and court decisions that constitute the body of European Union law. The term is French, "acquis" meaning "that which has been acquired or obtained", and “communautaire” meaning "of the community".
There are currently nine states recognised as candidates for membership of the European Union: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Kosovo (the independence of which is not recognised by five EU member states) formally submitted its application for membership in 2022 and is considered a potential candidate by the European Union. Due to multiple factors, talks with Turkey are at an effective standstill since December 2016.
Six candidates are currently engaged in active negotiations: Montenegro (since 2012), Serbia (since 2014), Albania (since 2020), North Macedonia (since 2020), Moldova and Ukraine (since 2024). The most advanced stage of the negotiations, defined as meeting the interim benchmarks for negotiating chapters 23 and 24, after which the closing process for all chapters can begin, has only been reached by Montenegro. Montenegro's declared political goal is to complete its negotiations by the end of 2026 and achieve membership of the EU by 2028.
In the European Union (EU), enhanced cooperation (previously known as closer cooperation) is a procedure where a minimum of nine EU member states are allowed to establish advanced integration or cooperation in an area within EU structures but without the other member states being involved. As of October 2017, this procedure is being used in the fields of the Schengen acquis, divorce law, patents, property regimes of international couples, and European Public Prosecutor and is approved for the field of a financial transaction tax.
This is distinct from the EU opt-out, that is a form of cooperation between EU member states within EU structures, where it is allowed for a limited number of states to refrain from participation (e.g. EMU, Schengen Area). It is further distinct from Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification and permanent acquis suspensions, whose lifting is conditional on meeting certain benchmarks by the affected member states.
The European Communities Act 1972 (c. 68), also known as the ECA 1972, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which made legal provision for the accession of the United Kingdom as a member state to the three European Communities (EC) – the European Economic Community (EEC, the 'Common Market'), European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), and the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC, which became defunct in 2002); the EEC and ECSC subsequently became the European Union.
The Act also incorporated Community Law (later European Union Law), along with its acquis communautaire, its treaties, regulations, directives, decisions, the Community Customs Union (later European Union Customs Union), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Common Fisheries Policy (FCP) together with judgments of the European Court of Justice into the domestic law of the United Kingdom.
Serbia applied to join the European Union (EU) in 2009 and has been a candidate for membership since 2012 (along with nine other states), while negotiations started in 2014 and are still ongoing.