“Building the Ship at Sea” Revisited. Lessons Learned from the European Union Accession of Post-communist Europe
“Building the Ship at Sea” Revisited. Lessons Learned from the European Union Accession of Post-communist Europe

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. This paper deals with the impact of European Union accession on the good governance policies of East Central Europe. On the average, quantitative assessments based on governance indicators produced by Freedom House and the World Bank show a lack of significant progress in the quality of governance during the years of the accession process and immediately afterwards, despite strong EU conditionality and socialization, as well as considerable Western assistance. A qualitative review of the sensitive fields of justice reform and anti-corruption in particular, but also of administrative reform, shows that EU-driven measures were frequently top-down, bureaucratically implemented and poorly associated with incentives for key actors like, for instance, magistrates, which explains their limited success.

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