The European Union and Expansion to the East: Aspects of Accession, Problems, And Prospects for the Future.
By International Social Science Review
- Release Date: 2009-03-22
- Genre: Social Science
Description
On April 9, 2003, the European Parliament adopted resolutions to grant accession to ten European applicant states to become full members of the European Union (EU), the integrated economic organization of Western Europe, on May 1, 2004. This process had evolved from the European Agreements (1991), the Copenhagen Summit (1993), the Corfu Summit (1994), the Essen Summit (1994), the Amsterdam Treaty (1997), and the Nice Treaty (2001). (1) Each of these conferences and agreements called for the eight applicant states from the former communist bloc, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia (all members of the Visegrad Group and the Central European Free Trade Agreement, or CEFTA), Slovenia (also a member of CEFTA), the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and the two island republics of Cyprus (the Greek Cypriot area) and Malta to meet the following criteria: (1) develop functioning market economies; (2) demonstrate respect for the rule of law and human rights; (3) adhere to the entire range of EU laws and policies (acquis communautaire), including the customs union, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), single-market laws and regulations, competition policies, as well as social and environmental policies; and, (4) join the common currency system, or euro, of the European Monetary Union. (2) This study examines the significance of the accession of the Visegrad/CEFTA states to the EU. The process of accession, integration, leadership, and the obstacles to cooperation first among the Visegrad/CEFTA states and then during the integration of these states into the EU are its primary focus. These issues are investigated primarily from the perspective of the Visegrad/CEFTA states, which pushed for integration with Western Europe immediately following the 1989 peaceful revolution against more than forty years of Communist rule by seeking full membership in the EU. As this study will show, that wait would be a long and frustrating one for the Visegrad/CEFTA states.
