The Council decides unanimously whether to open each chapter. The accession negotiations with Montenegro were opened in June 2012. On a practical level, the body of EU legislation (the 'acquis') is divided into 35 chapters (by policy). The candidate country creates the institutional structure for the dialogue with the EU. This includes all the treaties, regulations and directives passed by the
Acquis communautaire (Photo: European Commission) Acquis communautaire.

For Turkey and Croatia, the number of chapters for accession negotiations has been set at 35. The chapters cover the major aspects of EU policy, such as free movement of goods, capital, and workers; economic Multiple strategies and plans of action also need to be developed and implemented. Montenegro is a candidate country for membership of the EU. It covers all treaties, EU legislation, inte rnational agreements, standards, court verdicts, fundamental rights provisions and horizontal principles in the treaties such as equality and non-discrimination. The Accession Negotiations were divided into 35 Chapters, corresponding in large degree to the sectors made use of above, or of sub-sectors thereof. In this phase, the country gets acquainted with the relevant acquis under each negotiation chapter and with the tools, methods, techniques and acts used by the EU. The acquis is approximately 130,000 pages of legal documents grouped into 35 chapters and forms the rules by which Member States of the EU should adhere. CHAPTERS OF THE ACQUIS Chapter 1: Free movement of goods The principle of the free movement of goods implies that products must be traded freely from one part of the Union to another. New Modes of Governance and Accession to the European Union”, Tanja A. Börzel, Working Paper These chapters … Negotiation Chapters. For each Chapter, an assessment was made of Iceland’s readiness for EU membership in that area of national life, and of the degree of alignment of her law with the EU acquis. 5. The candidate country creates the institutional structure for the dialogue with the EU. On a practical level, the body of EU legislation (the 'acquis') is divided into 35 chapters (by policy). As a candidate country, Turkey needs to adapt a considerable part of its national legislation in line with EU law .

The emphasis is laid on the conditions in which a candidate country will embrace and execute the EU acquis communautaire, divided into 35 thematic chapters. See the EU Environmental acquis chapters By the end of 1992 European environmental law contained 196 Directives and 40 Regulations. During the process of the enlargement of the European Union, the acquis was divided into 31 chapters for the purpose of negotiation between the EU and the candidate member states for the fifth enlargement (the ten that joined in 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria which joined in 2007). The comparative table below displays the 31 chapters in the fifth enlargement process and the 35 chapters for Turkey and Croatia.

The EU acquis had a total of 31 chapters in the fifth wave of enlargement. the EU acquis in “Guidelines to the acquis communautaire: support to promotion of reciprocal understanding between the European Union and the Western Balkans ”, November 2004 • Institute for European Integration Research, “ Move Closer!
5. Acquis communautaire is a French term referring to the cumulative body of European Community laws, comprising the EC’s objectives, substantive rules, policies and, in particular, the primary and secondary legislation and case law – all of which form part of the legal order of the European Union (EU). The EU acquis had a total of 31 chapters in the fifth wave of enlargement.