» INTERNAL MARKET ISSUES Illegal Immigrants In November ECSA organised with other transport modes a Seminar in Brussels on carrier’s liability in relation to illegal immigration. As a result of that initiative a Steering Committee comprising the Commission, industry and some Member States met in January and identified a number of specific areas that should be developed further. For ECSA and other industry representatives the most important issue was to develop codes for each sector aimed at setting out what could reasonably be considered the respective responsibilities of operators and administrations. Within ECSA, a draft Code was developed that will be discussed further in the autumn, taking account of IMO and EU developments, in advance of a meeting of the Expert Group. Accession Countries Since March 1998 accession negotiations are taking place between the EU and 12 candidate countries (i.e. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia), which may eventually result in a full EU Membership. Accession negotiations are based on the political, economic and legal criteria of EU Membership. They are especially addressing the implementation of the ‘acquis communautaire’, i.e. the entire set of existing rules and legislation adopted by the EU and divided into 31 chapters or competence areas (e.g. transport). To date, ten of the candidate countries are expected to finalise accession negotiations by the end of 2002 and to join the EU in 2004, allowing participation at the 2004 European Parliament election. Bulgaria and Romania are expected to join the EU in 2007. With Turkey, the EU has only agreed at this stage an “Accession Partnership”. Formal accession negotiations with Turkey have still to be launched. As regards transport, the candidate countries face the challenge of implementing a very substantial body of transport law representing about 10% of the total acquis communautaire. This mainly consists of secondary legislation but requires also an adequate level of administrative capacity. As most candidate countries have nearly completed the process of legislative adaptation, the main issue to be addressed under the Transport Chapter will thus be one of monitoring application, ensuring in particular that the administrative capacity in candidate countries is adequate.