Enlargement Policy: Does Differentiated Integration Allow for Differentiated Enlargement?
Enlargement Policy: Does Differentiated Integration Allow for Differentiated Enlargement?

Author(s): Pinar Elman
Subject(s): Governance, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Geopolitics
Published by: PISM Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych
Keywords: European Union; enlargement policy; differentiated enlargement; new member states;
Summary/Abstract: Debates on the future architecture of the EU, and the onset proper of “differentiated integration,” tend to neglect the implications for enlargement policy. The issue has received little attention either in the European Union or candidate states, despite the fact that the internal EU reforms necessary to reassert the bloc’s attractiveness and power also risk creating new barriers to accession hopefuls. Yet the discussion on the future form of the European institutions and the different levels of integration may well provide a historic opportunity to overcome the EU’s enlargement crisis. If the EU grasps this chance to reform the enlargement process, it could not only strengthen stability, security and prosperity on the continent, it might reaffirm its influence on the world stage. In what follows, the contours of such a policy will be set out in order to pose the simple question: is this a step the EU is prepared to take?

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