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EU enlargement: The next eight
Eight countries are waiting in the wings to join the European Union.
Croatia and Turkey started accession talks on 3 October 2005. Turkey could complete them in 15 years, Croatia in 2011.
The other Balkan countries have been told they can join the EU one day, if they meet the criteria. These include democracy, the rule of law, a market economy and adherence to the EU's goals of political and economic union.
Iceland is the latest country to seek EU membership.
ALBANIA
Albania is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest. It formally applied for membership on 28 April 2009.
Since 15 December 2010 Albanians with biometric passports have been able to travel visa-free to the Schengen zone, which includes most EU countries.
Border controls are minimal under the Schengen accord, but the EU will keep a close watch on the flow of visitors from the Western Balkans.
EU governments say strengthening the rule of law and combating organised crime and corruption remain "urgent challenges" for Albania.
The EU and Albania concluded a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), seen as the first step towards membership, in June 2006.
The negotiations took three-and-a-half years - three times longer than they took in Croatia's and Macedonia's case.
This is because the EU thought Albania was moving too slowly in the fight against corruption and organised crime. The EU also has doubts about Albania's energy sector, which suffers from unstable supplies.
BOSNIA-HERCEGOVINA
Bosnia-Hercegovina is not expected to join the EU until 2015 at the earliest.
More than a decade after the 1992-5 war, it signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in June 2008. The EU was satisfied with progress in four key areas - police reform, co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal, public broadcasting and public administration reform.
Visa-free travel to the Schengen zone began in mid-December 2010 for Bosnians with biometric passports.
The EU maintains a peacekeeping force and a police mission in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where most Serbs live in the autonomous Republika Srpska. The Bosniak-Croat federation and Republika Srpska together form Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Bosnia's ethnic quarrels remain a worry for the EU, along with corruption and organised crime.
The Commission says Bosnia is still plagued by an "unstable political climate" and ethnic divisions.
In December 2009 EU governments urged Bosnia-Hercegovina to "speed up key reforms", and regretted the absence of a "shared vision" for the country's future.
Constitutional changes are required, to "create a functional state" in line with EU human rights standards, the governments said.
In the same month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Bosnia's electoral laws discriminated against Jews and Roma (Gypsies), because only Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs were allowed to run for high office.
Country profile: Bosnia-Hercegovina
CROATIA
Applied for membership: February 2003
Confirmed as candidate country: June 2004
Negotiations started: October 2005
Croatia has completed its accession negotiations with the European Commission and a target date of 1 July 2013 has been set for it to join the EU.
Croatia will be the second ex-Yugoslav country after Slovenia to join.
Judicial reform was among the toughest of the 30 negotiating areas, or "chapters". EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said that "in one year they have completely reformed their judiciary system and have made it irreversible".
The highest-profile target in Croatia's crackdown on corruption is on trial - former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. He was arrested in Austria and extradited to Croatia. He is accused of conspiring to commit crime and of abuse of office. He denies wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor has replaced four ministers in the government she inherited from Mr Sanader.
A European Commission report in March 2011 said Croatia must make appointments of judges and state prosecutors more transparent, clear court backlogs, pursue high-level corruption investigations more thoroughly and do more to help disadvantaged minorities.
A border dispute with neighbouring Slovenia - an EU member - held up Croatia's accession talks until early September 2009, when Slovenia agreed to lift its veto over the talks.
Slovenia agreed to detach the border issue from the accession talks and seek to resolve it separately.
Back in 2005 accession talks were delayed by seven months as Croatia struggled to convince the EU it was doing its best to find war crimes suspect Gen Ante Gotovina. He was arrested in the Canary Islands in December 2005.
On 15 April 2011 the war crimes tribunal in The Hague sentenced Gen Gotovina and another wartime Croat general, Mladen Markac, to 24 and 18 years in jail, respectively. They were found guilty of atrocities against Serbs in 1995. There was widespread anger in Croatia over the sentences.
ICELAND
Applied for full membership: July 2009
Negotiations started: July 2010
The EU has opened accession talks with Iceland.
But Iceland's progress is threatened by a dispute over mackerel fishing.
Iceland objects to the EU and Norway taking more than 90% of the total allowable catch recommended by scientists. Iceland has increased its 2011 quota unilaterally by nearly 17,000 tonnes.
The European Commission is now considering an EU-wide ban on the sale of mackerel caught by Iceland.
Another sensitive area is financial reform, with Iceland still reeling from the collapse of its major banks in 2008.
In two referendums Icelanders have rejected compensation deals struck by their government with the UK and the Netherlands over savings lost by investors in the collapsed Icesave online bank.
The UK and Dutch governments want Iceland to reimburse the estimated 4bn euros (£3.4bn; $5.3bn) that they paid as compensation to Icesave investors. The dispute will delay Iceland's EU bid unless it is resolved.
According to Iceland's President, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, assets from the collapsed bank Landsbanki will cover what is owed.
The European Commission says Iceland is already deeply integrated with the EU - it applies about two-thirds of EU laws - so it has less distance to cover than other applicants. But the EU is not offering any "shortcut".
Iceland is in the Schengen zone, meaning its people enjoy passport-free travel to many European countries. Iceland also applies many of the EU's single market rules.
The North Atlantic island, home to just 320,000 people, will not join unless Icelanders support it in a referendum. That could be held in late 2011 or early 2012, officials say.
The Icelandic krona has plummeted in value, but many Icelanders may still prefer to keep it. The fallout from Europe's debt crisis means the euro has lost some of its lustre since 2009.
Some Icelanders think they would be better off outside the EU, fearing the impact of EU regulations on their traditional fisheries and whaling.
Iceland's independence from continental Europe has provided fertile ground for Eurosceptics, and recent opinion polls suggest a strong "no" camp.
Icelandic membership would give the EU a more significant role in the Arctic - a region rich in untapped energy and mineral resources.
MACEDONIA
Applied for full membership: March 2004
Confirmed as candidate: December 2005
The European Commission has recommended that the EU open membership talks with Macedonia.
It says the former Yugoslav republic has made "convincing progress" in police reform, tackling corruption and bolstering human rights.
Since 19 December 2009 Macedonians have not needed visas to visit most EU member states - those in the Schengen zone.
Hopes that accession talks would open in 2008 suffered a blow from election violence in June and a subsequent boycott of parliament by ethnic Albanian opposition parties.
A bitter dispute with Greece over Macedonia's name continues to hamper the country's bids to join the EU and Nato. Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1993 using the temporary name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Fyrom).
Greece argues that the name "Macedonia" cannot be monopolised by one country, and that doing so implies a territorial claim over the northern Greek region of the same name.
In a November 2008 interview, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki said "it is important that 125 countries worldwide have recognised Macedonia's constitutional name," and added: "we remain firm on our stance that only the Republic of Greece has a problem with Macedonia's constitutional name".
A date of 2012 has been suggested as a possible target for Macedonia to join the EU.
MONTENEGRO
Applied for full membership: December 2008
Confirmed as candidate: December 2010
Candidate status has boosted Montenegro's bid and the EU plans to open the country's accession talks in June 2012.
The EU says Montenegro must intensify its efforts to consolidate the rule of law, fight organised crime and corruption and protect freedom of expression.
Talks with the EU on a Stability and Association Agreement (SAA) began shortly after the country voted, in May 2006, to end its union with Serbia. The SAA was signed in October 2007.
Montenegro's Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, has said he hopes his country will succeed in joining the EU before neighbouring Serbia or Macedonia.
Since 19 December 2009, citizens of Montenegro have not needed visas to visit most EU countries - those in the Schengen zone.
SERBIA
Applied for full membership: December 2009.
Serbia's progress towards the EU has been sluggish - it is trailing far behind its neighbour Croatia, a bitter enemy in the 1990s Balkan wars.
But Serbia's EU prospects have improved since the arrest on 26 May 2011 of Europe's most wanted war crimes suspect, General Ratko Mladic.
The former Bosnian Serb commander had been on the run for 16 years - a thorn in the side of Serbia's President Boris Tadic, who has tried to steer his country towards the West since 2008.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele said "a great obstacle on the Serbian road to the European Union has been removed".
Serbia's co-operation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague is a key condition in its accession bid.
In July 2011 the last major indictee wanted in The Hague, former Croatian Serb leader Goran Hadzic, was arrested in northern Serbia and sent to The Hague for trial.
The two figures blamed the most for Bosnian Serb wartime atrocities are also in custody - Gen Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, who was arrested in Serbia in July 2008 and is on trial in The Hague.
Serbia is unlikely to join the EU until at least 2015. But the high-profile arrests have put Serbia on track to get EU candidate status before March 2012.
Citizens of Serbia and two other former Yugoslav republics - Macedonia and Montenegro - enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen area, which includes most of the EU. The visa waiver applies to those who hold biometric passports.
Serbia signed a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU in April 2008, but only in June 2010 did EU foreign ministers agree to put it into effect.
Belgrade's ties with the EU have been strained by Kosovo's declaration of independence - a declaration recognised by most EU members. Serbia insists that Kosovo remains part of its territory.
But a UN resolution in September 2010, in which Serbia dropped its demand to reopen negotiations on Kosovo's status, signalled Belgrade's willingness to compromise.
On 8 March 2011 senior officials from Serbia and Kosovo held their first round of EU-sponsored talks.
The EU wants to see better Serbian co-operation with its police and justice mission in Kosovo, called Eulex. Many Kosovo Serbs are reluctant to recognise the authority of Eulex.
TURKEY
Applied for full membership: 1987
Confirmed as candidate: December 1999
Negotiations started: October 2005
Turkey met the last condition for accession talks in July 2005, when it extended a customs union with the EU to all new member states, including Cyprus.
However, it failed to ratify the customs union and its ports and airports remain closed to Cypriot traffic. The EU responded, in December 2006, by freezing accession talks in eight policy areas.
In December 2009 EU governments reaffirmed the freeze, saying it would "have a continuous effect on the overall progress in the negotiations".
"Turkey has not made progress towards normalisation of its relations with the Republic of Cyprus," they said, calling for progress "without further delay".
So far only 13 of the 33 areas of negotiation - called "chapters" - have been opened.
Turkey's EU negotiations have been overshadowed by concerns about freedom of speech and democracy in Turkey, treatment of religious minorities, women's and children's rights, civilian control of the military and the Cyprus tensions.
The European Commission has called on Turkey to strengthen democracy and human rights, underlining the need for deeper judicial reform.
The EU has welcomed Ankara's moves to improve Kurdish rights and its efforts to normalise ties with neighbouring Armenia.
The EU also welcomed the Yes vote in a Turkish referendum in September 2010, which gave the ruling AK Party the go-ahead to change the military-era constitution and bring it more into line with EU norms.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of other senior politicians in the EU want Turkey to have a partnership deal with the EU, rather than full membership.
Some politicians worry that such a large, mainly Muslim country would change the whole character of the EU, while others point to the young labour force that Turkey could provide for an ageing Europe.
The UK Foreign Office says it expects Turkey to be ready for membership "in a decade or so".
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