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The ability to take on the obligations of membership requires the adoption, implementation and enforcement of the acquis. The importance that candidate countries implement and enforce the acquis was underlined by the European Council on a number of occasions. In Madrid in 1995, the European Council highlighted the importance of adjusting the candidate countries' administrative structures in order to create the conditions for their gradual and harmonious integration. In 2000, the Feira European Council recalled that ``progress in the negotiations depends on the incorporation by the candidate countries of the acquis in their national legislation and especially on their capacity to effectively implement and enforce it'', by strengthening their administrative and judicial structures. In June 2001, the Göteborg European Council stressed again the importance that candidate countries make continued progress in transposing, implementing and enforcing the acquis, and that they pay particular attention to putting in place adequate administrative structures and to reforming their judicial systems and their civil service.
Transposing, implementing and applying the acquis is not only a matter for government and administration, but also for business, regional and local bodies and professional organisations. The European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of Regions have called for the closer involvement of civil society in the process. The candidate countries' national authorities need to enhance dialogue with representative institutions to explain the acquis and to facilitate its countrywide implementation.
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