Abstract
The Europe agreements did not resolve the questions of whether and when the East European states should join the Community, but the associates continued to demand answers and the member states had to come up with a collective response. After much prevarication, in June 1993, the European Council agreed that the East European associates could join, provided certain membership conditions were met. The EU then devised an innovative and extensive pre-accession strategy, to integrate gradually the associates into the Union. Several key steps towards enlargement were taken in 1997, the most important being the decision to open membership negotiations with some of the associates.
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Notes
Stanley Hoffmann maintains that Mitterrand’s opposition to enlargement was caused by an obsession with German power. In ‘French Dilemmas and Strategies in the New Europe’, in Robert Keohane, Joseph Nye and Stanley Hoffmann, eds, After the Cold War: International Institutions and State Strategies, 1989–1991 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 140.
David Buchan, ‘EC To Meet East Europe Leaders’, The Financial Times, 21 July 1992. France also wanted all the EC leaders to attend the summit meeting, an indication perhaps of resentment of the British initiative in an area where France wanted to lead.
‘Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the European Community and the Visegrad Countries — Joint Statement’, Council of the European Communities Press Release 9033/92 (Presse 170), Luxembourg, 5 October 1992, p. 3. The Community promised to help the Visegrad countries with the approximation of their laws to the acquis communautaire, and to develop joint infrastructure projects.
The Gabcikovo dam dispute between Hungary and Slovakia dominated behind the scenes at the summit; see Section 7.3.3.
Andrew Marshall, ‘EC to Improve Links with East Europe’, The Independent, 29 October 1992.
‘Joint Declaration of the EC Community and its Member States and the Visegrad Group of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia on Political Dialogue’, European Union Press Release, 29 October 1992.
Peter Balazs, The EU’s Collective Regional Approach to its Eastern Enlargement: Consequences and Risks, CORE Working Paper 1/1997 (Copenhagen: Copenhagen Research Project on European Integration, 1997), pp. 11–21.
Douglas Hurd and Klaus Kinkel, ‘Welcome to our Eastern Cousins’, The Times, 26 April 1994.
John Major, ‘Raise Your Eyes, There is a Land Beyond’, The Economist, 25 September 1993.
Nino Andreatta, ‘Una Politica Estera per l’Italia’, Il Mulino, no. 5, September—October 1993, p. 888.
Stephen Kinzer, ‘German Plan for Phased Union of Europe Provokes Controversy’, The New York Times, 4 September 1994.
Lionel Barber, ‘Opportunity for Fine-Tuning’, The Financial Times, 10 May 1995.
See Kirsty Hughes, Eastward Enlargement of the EU: EU Strategy and Future Challenges, European Programme Working Paper no. 2 (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1996), p. 6.
Hugh Carnegy, ‘Baltics May Have to Take “Second Best”’, The Financial Times, 22 November 1996.
Lionel Barber, ‘Row Threatens EU Enlargement Plans’, The Financial Times, 15 September 1997 and David Evans, ‘EU Farm Ministers Get First Bite at Reforms’, Reuter, 5 September 1997.
Janet McEvoy, ‘Differences Burst into Open on EU Enlargement’, Reuter, 22 July 1997.
Sarah Helm, ‘EC Holds Hand Out as States Make Grade’, The Independent, 17 July 1997.
See Michael Smith, ‘The European Union and a Changing Europe: Establishing the Boundaries of Order’, Journal of Common Market Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, March 1996, pp. 18–23.
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© 2004 Karen E. Smith
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Smith, K.E. (2004). Integration. In: The Making of EU Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230536784_6
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