Reforming for Accession: A New EU for a New Europe

Abstract

Chapter 11 analyses the course of SPD policy on eastern enlargement after the party came to power in 1998. It will look at the construction of a more comprehensive policy on eastern enlargement, led by the Federal Government through an altered matrix of actors and structures (policy context), with policy implementation as a close consideration. In opposition, SPD European policy was a product of the institutional and national contexts, which were overwhelmingly domestic policy-and election-oriented, so that enlargement policy was neglected by the party leadership aside from the related issue of the EU budget. The party’s EU policy experts had only formulated detailed policy proposals in the are of budgetary reform (Chapter 10), which was just one aspect of the upcoming Agenda 2000 negotiations, due to be tackled under the German Council Presidency (January to June 1999). The SPD was forced to deal with the whole range of European issues in government, and — finally recognising the importance of these questions — the party leadership launched its European policy review in 2000.