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Eastward Enlargement Of EU: An Analysis Of The Negotiations On The Accession Of Central-Eastern Europe Countries

Posted on:2005-02-06Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y WangFull Text:PDF
GTID:2156360122999610Subject:World History
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Europe was divided into two parts in the cold war. The end of cold war gave EU a very rare historic opportunity to reunite Europe.EU thought that it is necessary to absorb Central-Eastern Europe Countries (CEECs) into EU, and that is very important to maintain the stabilization and safety, as well as prosperity of the Continent. On the point view of economy, CEECs have many well-educated labors, and have abundant natural resources, so CEECs are perfect investment places. At the same time, EU thought that she has the obligation to help CEECs` transition, and help them join the historic process of the Europe integration. So Eastward Enlargement is the necessary choice for EU after the cold war. After radical political change took place in 1989, "Return to Europe" was put forward widely by CEESs as their primary objective both in domestic politics and in foreign policy. This article is dealt with accession to EU."Return to Europe" is a political slogan , but in a sense,it is derived from historical and cultural identity in some CEECs, determined by their civilization attributes. In the history and culture perspective, some of the CEECs belong to European civilization, namely western civilization,and they have the qualifications and reasons "Return to Europe", but some of the CEECs don't belong to European civilization ,but they identify with the European common merit. In political aspect,CEECs can fill up the "security vacuum" in the post-cold war world, and resist the military menace from Russia. In economic aspect, accession to EU means CEECs can gain a great deal of aid and investment for the transition, furthermore the long-term, latent economic advantage is a big temptation.Enlargement is determined by the inevitability of the Europe history, and the inevitability also determines the essence of enlargement. The key of enlargement is not whether enlargement can come true, but when it can come true. The positions of EU and the candidate countries in the negotiations are not equal, but it cannot affect the final result of the negotiations. Whatever the negotiations difficult are, the result of the negotiations can be foreseen, and that mean the negotiations will come to terms in the end. The Central and Eastern Europe candidate countries can join in EU consequentially, which is determined by the inevitability of the history of EU enlargement. EU acknowledged for the first time that these countries could become members of the Union under certain general conditions (the Copenhagen criteria) in June 1993 at the Copenhagen European Council. The decision to begin negotiations with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Cyprus was taken by the European Council in Luxembourg in 1997. These countries were so called the Luxembourg Group. The decision to open negotiations with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Malta was taken at the Helsinki European Council held in 1999. These countries were so called Helsinki Group.After four years difficult negotiations, EU affirmed the accession countries and accession day in December 2002 at the Copenhagen European Council. The enlargement process began from the Copenhagen European Council in 1993 which acknowledged eastern enlargement for the first time, and ended in Copenhagen European Council in 2002 which affirmed the accession countries and accession date .The accession negotiations last almost ten years, so we can realize the hardship and complexity of the negotiations.Accession negotiations between the candidate countries and EU have been divided into 31 chapters. EU require candidate countries regulate domestic relative laws and regulations. In some "sensitive" parts, EU grant that there will be transitional periods, but transitional periods must be limited in time and scope .The endgame of the negotiations concentrated on the most important chapters, and that is to say more relative to benefit distribution the chapters are, more difficult the negotiations are. The most important chapters are agriculture, environment...
Keywords/Search Tags:Central-Eastern
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