The conditions a candidate country must satisfy in order to become a member of the European Union. These include political and economic criteria, as well as requirements for administrative and institutional capacity. The 1993 European Council in Copenhagen agreed that candidate countries should have ‘achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights, respect for and protection of minorities, the existence of a functioning market economy’ and adhere to ‘the aims of political, economic and monetary union’.