His battles came over the European Communities bill, the essential preliminary to accession, approved at second reading on 17 February 1972 by a majority of just eight.
But organised crime and corruption remain stumbling blocks to accession, as Danilović acknowledges, saying that law enforcement in the past was "not adequate".
Most of all, they must be pleased that the European Union has now signaled that the 301 trials are serious impediments to accession.
One of the surest signs that China is truly close to accession comes from just outside its own borders.
He had become chairman of the Conservative group for Europe when this was a fashionable cause and proposed the successful resolution on Britain's membership of the then Common Market to the 1969 Tory conference, leading to accession in 1973.
The latest decision by the Netherlands and Britain to drop their vetos on closer relations with Serbia, a prelude to accession, is a good example.
"Neither the pope nor the Vatican have endorsed Turkey's EU membership per se," he told the American charge d'affaires, "rather, the Holy See has been consistently open to accession, emphasising only that Turkey needs to fulfil the EU's Copenhagen criteria to take its place in Europe".
negotiators appear to have removed most of the remaining obstacles to accession, it emerged this week, including differences on meat imports, sanitary standards and incentives to Russian automobile producers.
Although during the meeting Turkey was discussed as an enlargement candidate along with Croatia, the conclusions omitted any specific reference to "accession" or "membership" as the final goal of Turkey's negotiations with the EU.
Other obstacles to accession included the high level of state support for Russian agriculture, the poor protection afforded by Russian law to intellectual property rights, and disparities in technical standards relating to food and livestock imports.
Russia has come close to accession several times, only to have the process derailed by geopolitical shocks, like its 2008 war with Georgia, or by surprise announcements, like Russia's declaration that it would join only as part of a trade union with Belarus and Kazakhstan.
