A meeting recently took place between the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee and representatives of counterpart committees of EU candidate countries, Cyprus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Slovenia and Slovakia.

The meeting was considered successful as it showed that candidate countries are taking all necessary steps to adopt the European directives on national law and implement necessary changes in their respective countries. Yesterday, parliament in Cyprus approved new legislation which aligns local legislation with EU directives. Specifically, new legislation was approved concerning driving licenses which aims to improve the level of road safety and legislation concerning a witness protection program in efforts to combat corruption.

A decisive factor for any country's accession will be the successful completion of negotiations therefore the determination of an exact date for each is not possible.