On November 10 1998, the European Union began accession negotiations with the six countries to be considered in the first wave of enlarged membership: Poland, Hungary, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Cyprus. This was the first step in a long process that would shift the center of gravity in the European Community eastwards. In this collection of its regular reports on candidate countries in central and eastern Europe, the European Commission analyzes the implementation of reforms in the various countries since July 1997 and their general progress towards accession. In addition to reports about each of the twelve candidates, the site also offers a Composite Paper containing "a synthesis of the analysis in each of the regular reports as well as a series of recommendations. This document also sets out the state of play on the negotiations and the reinforcement of the pre-accession strategy."