The Challenges Of EU Enlargement

Before enlargement, it was politically incorrect to discuss possible waves of migration to the West, as EU politicians saw this as an obstacle to the enlargement process. Now that enlargement has taken place, it is easier to discuss migration objectively.

Rather, the process remains open and indeterminate. EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle insists that enlargement is progressing, but the western Balkans remains a fragile region, defined by mutually antagonistic nationalisms, incomplete state formation, deep and pervasive patterns of corruption, and endemic economic mismanagement.

The 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement stimulated useful exchanges of information but full harmonization was considered difficult.

As the EU celebrates the accession of Croatia which will undoubtedly provide a short term boost to the reform process throughout the western Balkans it faces a profound choice in its engagement with the region. It can reinvigorate the spirit of earlier enlargement rounds, or it can succumb to enlargement fatigue.

Ten countries joined the fifth enlargement of the European Union (EU) in 2004, having fulfilled the Copenhagen Criteria that contribute to institutionalizing EU standards for governance and public administration.

The process of enlargement will either be delayed or stopped completely, because the EU can no longer admit new members on the basis of the Nice constitution. The price will first be paid in the Balkans, and then by Turkey.

After all, given broad resistance to any further EU enlargement at the moment, the accession process will undoubtedly move very slowly. The objective should thus be to find new, more efficient modes of cooperation that avoid the issues and conflicts that have impeded accession negotiations.

Olli Rehn, EU Enlargement Commissioner, has stated that if Serbia and Montenegro continue to fail to hand over Karadžić and Mladić, those talks could be suspended.

Nor should today s uncertainties become an excuse to call into question the need to continue and complete the process of EU enlargement. Extending the EU s area of freedom and democracy, peace, stability, and prosperity, especially throughout south eastern Europe, is in the interest of every European citizen.

The greatest success of Europe s external policy has been EU enlargement. This promoted and consolidated regime change without the use of weapons, thereby stabilizing the European continent.

Europe is a peculiar combination of geography and history, but the boundaries of the EU and thus the prospects for its further enlargement are determined by its absorptive capacity and the adaptive abilities of candidate countries. Is enlargement the only effective policy of stabilization and peace?

In fact, enlargement fatigue has been the dominant feature of EU relations with the western Balkan states and explains why the accession process has been flat lining along a path of frozen negotiations and mutual mistrust toward an increasingly uncertain destination. This remains the case even after Croatia s accession.

The EU can continue muddle along with its one size fits all policy of enlargement lite in the region. Or it can work harder to turn balancers into joiners.

Nonetheless, the process of revitalizing the Organization will remain incomplete until we are able to agree on the enlargement of the Security Council.

The defeat of the EU s Constitutional Treaty in referendums in France and the Netherlands has, it seems, given rise to a new consensus that further enlargement of the Union should be slowed down, or even stopped. Advocates of this position see EU voters as terrified by the consequences of the May 2004 enlargement of the EU, when eight formerly communist states joined, and angry that they were not consulted about it.

Yet, this symbol has not made the EU or the euro area any more popular. Support for EU membership within the pre enlargement EU 15 remains where it was in the mid 1990 s (and below the peak reached in 1990), while support for the euro is no higher now than it was in 1997.

As the latest round of enlargement proves, the EU is very effective at molding the governance and behavior of would be members. Preparations for EU entry strongly motivated the eight former communist Central European states to entrench or restore democratic institutions and market economies.

Indeed, the euro has quickly become a symbol of European unity. When asked, What does the EU mean to you personally, 50 of citizens in the 15 countries that were EU members before enlargement in May 2004 say the euro the second most common response (just behind the ability to travel, study, and work anywhere in the EU ).

Enlargement fatigue entered the European political lexicon in the wake of the dramatic failures of the French and Dutch referenda on the EU Constitutional Treaty in 2005. The seismic shock of the treaty s rejection by two original EU members cried out for a scapegoat, and the big bang enlargement completed the previous year in which eight post communist countries (along with Cyprus and Malta) joined simultaneously seemed a good place to put the blame.

The United States had been pressing the EU to advance Turkey s application for admission, but Turkish membership was already controversial in several EU countries. This reflects concerns about Turkey s Muslim culture and its large population, as well as concern that any further enlargement will overly dilute the European project.

Croatia s accession to the EU on July 1 provides a welcome boost to a region that has been placed on the back burner as a result of enlargement fatigue and the EU s crisis induced introspection. Enlargement advocates also point to the deal signed by Kosovo and Serbia in April as another key development in unlocking the Balkans European future.

EU enlargement brought greater prosperity, with living standards improving throughout the Union, particularly in the new member states. But many of the older member states also benefitted, and not only in economically measureable ways.

The EU urgently needs to democratize its procedures and reorganize its institutions to ensure that this year's enlargement does not lead to bureaucratic deadlock. The draft Constitution provides acceptable answers to many questions of governance.

Fiji also supports the efforts to move ahead with the reform through a proposal asking Member States to take serious decisions on the progress of the enlargement process.

They were admitted to the EU only fifteen years after the fall of communism, and not all of them had previous experience with democracy. Unlike EU members admitted during earlier rounds of enlargement, the Central Europeans suffer from widespread corruption, political nepotism, fragile political parties with unclear identities, and weak civil societies.

The just concluded meeting of the European Council acknowledged the progress made by both Serbia and Kosovo, with the Serbs being given a (somewhat conditional) start date for accession negotiations and Kosovo to begin a pre screening process. The EU bet here is that, on the back of Croatia s accession, the enlargement logjam in the western Balkans will finally be broken.

The EU Police Mission was fully engaged in the police restructuring process, and the EU Police Mission Head of Mission served as a full member of the Police Restructuring Commission.

To be sure, Ukraine has a strong partner in the EU particularly if its government responds effectively to voters call for improved governance. But, whatever Ukraine achieves, it cannot overcome Europeans fears of further integration, much less enlargement.

The first issue concerns the continuation of enlargement. The EU is an indisputable success, constituting the largest integrated economic area in the world and accounting for more than 30 of world GDP and around 17 of world trade.

Britain has continued to support EU enlargement, closer links with Turkey, and development in Africa, but it has not launched any creative initiatives to bring other member states along or change the terms of the EU debate. On other issues, such as engaging strategic partners China and Russia in particular the United Kingdom is often a follower as well.

On Chechnya, they regularly reported either that they had received no complaints from the EU about humanitarian relief, or that they were complying with the United Nations code on relief efforts they were duplicitous on both counts. Similar dissembling characterized negotiations on trade, partnership agreements, the enlargement of the EU to Eastern Europe, and access to Kaliningrad.

Institutions, however, may be reformed if they no longer work, and this is exactly what the EU has been futilely trying to do for 20 years. After 1989, history has made EU enlargement indispensable, but, without institutional reform, a Europe of 27 member states will inevitably deliver ever worse and, to its citizens, increasingly disappointing results.

Then there are those who believe that EU enlargement has prevented greater deepening, and who, with scant regard for the past or the future, argue that pursuing the latter requires abandoning the former. But who can reasonably claim to know what shape the EU will need to take to meet the challenges of the next 50 or 100 years?

Italy, as a member of the European Union (EU) and as the holder of its presidency two years ago, when the revitalization process was initiated, recalls the role played by the EU and notes that many EU proposals are reflected in resolution 59 95.

We support enlargement to produce a representative Council, but enlargement achieved in a way that is compatible with the principles of democracy, fairness, flexibility and accountability.

(b) Enlargement of the membership of the Security Council

The western Balkan applicants have thus had to contend with a process that is now managed on a more intergovernmental basis than was the big bang of 2004, and which has, at times, been held hostage to member states selfish bilateral demands. Enlargement was traditionally viewed as an area where national interests would be more readily set aside than in conventional EU settings the normative dimension of the process seemed to demand a more community oriented approach to decision making.

But with enlargement come challenges. At a time of slow growth, lingering high unemployment, and difficult fiscal situations in some countries, it is understandable that longer standing members of the EU sometimes focus more on the potentially disruptive difficulties than the opportunities.

Changes in the European Union (EU), NATO and the Council of Europe reflect a Europe in transition, partly as a result of the enlargement of the European Union and NATO but also because of the need to cope with new threats to security.

Technical assistance activities include, among others, a regional workshop on the Compilers Manual organized by the Statistics Division and the provision by Eurostat of technical assistance in the framework of EU enlargement, the EU Mediterranean agreement, the Cotonou agreement and regional cooperation agreements such as the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and l'Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest Africaine.

But, for various reasons, the process gradually ground to a halt. The EU is now largely frozen in its current shape.

By proceeding with the process of, and deciding on, Security Council enlargement, we will send a clear signal that we will spare no effort in finalizing a comprehensive reform of the whole United Nations system.

The French, for example, do not want to lose farm subsidies, just as they are not eager to give more money to the new members, whose reformed economies are taking away French jobs. British leeriness about giving up the EU rebate in the face of what is perceived as French egoism is equally understandable despite the fact that this stance harms the enlargement process, which Great Britain otherwise supports.

Significant progress in police restructuring is a condition for Bosnia and Herzegovina to move forward in the EU stabilization and association process.