EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT - CONSEQUENCES AND PROBLEMS.

Extract

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EUROPEAN UNION ENLARGEMENT - CONSEQUENCES AND PROBLEMS.

Abstract

The consequences of the fifth enlargement will be multiple. The capacity of the EU as an actor in international relations will increase whereas the coherence within the community will decrease. New forms of coalition will form in an enlarged EU. The EU will have direct neighbors like Russia, Turkey and Ukraine and Belarus. This means the EU is connected to crisis areas. The more the EU approaches to these crisis areas the more the EU has to develop a strategy how to answer such challenges. Another problem of the enlargement process is the limited public enthusiasm in some EU countries.

1. Introduction

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the socialist countries some months later and the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a vacuum in Central and Eastern Europe concerning their role in international relations. But the most immediate political challenge at that time was the German unification. Nevertheless, there was a situation in which the old bipolar world did not exist any longer, but a new order was not established yet. This had to be done by the politicians in the 90ies. So in this new European order the CEES had to find their place. The end of the East-West-conflict produced a growing number of Eastern European requests for associate or full membership with the EU to open its doors to them. "Almost immediately after assuming power, the post-communist leaders of Central and Eastern Europe began to suggest that their countries should be admitted to what soon was to become the EU, as well as NATO" (van Oudenaren 2000:315). The old EC-countries had to find an answer to the demands of the political elites in Eastern and Central Europe. First, the EC countries practiced a policy of economic support (PHARE-Programme, t...

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