Утицај проширења Европске уније на процес Европских интеграција
The influence of European union enlargement on the process of European integration

Summary/Abstract: The EC/EU has had six enlargements in the course of its history: the first enlargement happened in 1973, and the last one in 2013. Through the enlargement process, it has grown from the community of 6 member states to the community of 28 states with over half a billion inhabitants. The aim of the paper is to explain what is implied by the process of “EU enlargement”, what its ultimate goal is, as well as to determine whether the enlargement influences the European integration process in a positive or negative way, that is, whether it is accelerated or slowed down. The enlargement process is the first peaceful, voluntary manner of joining European people into one community and under one rule in the history of Europe. The principal goal of this process is joining the European continent into a unified organisational whole in the economic, political, security and cultural sense, and strengthening the Union’s global position. The overall impact of the enlargement process on the European integration process is undoubtedly positive due to the fact that the enlargement has increased the number of participants in the integration process and the number of EU policies initiated. Each enlargement has had a different effect on the integration process, but the Eastern enlargement posed the biggest challenge. Thereby, the enlargement process translated the Western European integration process into the European integration process. It did provide the Union with the position of a global economic, but not politico-security actor.

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