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THE EUROPEAN UNION ACQUIS

The EU acquis had a total of 31 chapters in the fifth wave of enlargement. For Turkey and Croatia, the number of chapters for accession negotiations has been set at 35. The comparative table below displays the 31 chapters in the fifth enlargement process and the 35 chapters for Turkey and Croatia.

In the Negotiating Framework for Croatia and Turkey, which was published in 29 June 2005, it was announced that the negotiations would be conducted in 35 chapters. This change is not due to an increase in the number of negotiating chapters, but rather due to the fact the Union guided by the experiences gained in the fifth wave of enlargement has created new chapters by splitting some of the old ones and merging some others. For instance, Trans-European Networks which was under the Energy chapter was made into a separate chapter. On the contrary, the Industrial Policy and SMEs, which used to be two different chapters, have become a single chapter renamed as Enterprise and Industrial Policy. Also, since Agricultural Policy covers an extensive area and lengthy negotiations, veterinary and phytosanitary policy heading has been removed and combined with Food Safety under the Consumer and Health Protection to have a new chapter, namely Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy. The European Commission aims at facilitating the negotiation process by making such modifications in the chapters

The European Commission's summary as to what each acquis chapter entails can be reached by clicking on the relevant chapter listed in the table.