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The conclusions of the accession negotiations will be embodied in a treaty of accession, bringing together, probably as in past accessions in one legal instrument, the results of the separate accession conferences. The drafting of the legal texts requires technical preparation, which has already started.
For the last enlargement, this legal instrument - consisting of a brief treaty and a lengthy Act of Accession mainly devoted to the technical adaptations of secondary legislation necessary for the accession of the four applicant countries concerned. It also included a provision for adaptation of the treaty in the event that a candidate country failed to ratify; this permitted the treaty to come into force in spite of the rejection of ratification in Norway.
For the next accession treaty, work on drafting should start in the first half of 2002 within the framework of the Council and the accession conferences. The Commission will assist by making the necessary technical proposals. It will also identify those parts of the acquis which require technical adaptations and will provide the Council with an inventory of all such technical adaptations, taking into account the information collected from each candidate country.
Enlargement will be subject to approval on the Union's side by the Council and by the European Parliament, taking account of the final Opinion which the Commission will submit on the outcome of the negotiations. The Treaty resulting from the accession negotiations will then be formally signed by the parties concerned (Member States and candidate countries) and submitted for ratification by the contracting States in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.
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