EU Enlargement and Integration in the NEBI Area

Abstract

In its November woo Enlargement Strategy Paper (Commission 8 November 2000), the EU Commission expressed its belief that enlargement of the European Union with several new member states mainly from Central and Eastern Europe was imminent — with the end of 2002 being set as the date of the first entries into the Union.¹ Later developments have dampened this optimism somewhat. Nevertheless it is still the official belief that enlargement is close at hand. At its meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, 15–16 June 2001 the European Council spoke of breakthroughs in the negotiations for membership and predicted a successful conclusion of the enlargement. Despite the Irish referendum rejecting the Nice Treaty of December 2000 intended to get the EU institutions ready for enlargement, the EU heads of government remained confident that the enlargement process would prove ‘irreversible.’ As pointed out in the Presidency Conclusions from the Gothenburg Summit, a number of the applicants were far ahead of others in terms of meeting the specific requirements of the EU acquis, nevertheless even the laggards among the candidates might count on assistance to reach their objectives. Overall the EU was to apply a ‘principle of differentiation’ in its dealings with the Central and Eastern European countries, allowing the best-prepared countries to move more quickly (EU Commission 2001b).