Have we reached the limits of the EU enlargement?

Résumé du document

In the light of the massive 2004 European Union (EU) enlargement and the current one of Bulgaria and Romania, the question of whether the EU is reaching the limits of its enlargement shows all its relevance. In fact, since the moment the European integration process was launched, it has welcomed 21 new members in five different waves. The 2004 enlargement eastwards challenged significantly the nature of the enlargement process, by re-balancing the backbone of the European Community (EC) – the Franco-German axis – toward a stronger German position. The official recognition of Turkey as a candidate to the accession at the European Council of Helsinki in 1999 also set the nature of the enlargement at the top the EU agenda, as well as reviving the debate about the European identity. The EU enlargement process is ongoing, in time and space. Does a limit exist to the EU enlargement? How many countries will the EU be capable of “absorbing”? On which accurate criterion can an applicant to membership (or candidacy) be rejected? Should the EU be deepened before being widened?All these questions are quite debated today.

Extraits

[...] Some scholars talks about “inevitable enlargement”. I cannot assume that these countries are certainly going to enter the Union, because all the countries have to vote unanimously to accept the membership of these applicants. Most of the scholars on the subject seem to pretend that the EU is likely to welcome more countries in the future. At present, the question is not if the EU is likely to welcome more countries like Croatia or the West Balkan countries in a foreseeable future, but where the limits of Europe are. [...]

[...] I especially analyzed the first section, in order to show the ambiguity surrounding the debate about enlargement. However, enlargement processes are also strongly dominated by pragmatism: even if a country did theoretically fulfil the criteria, the Union could reject it, first because unanimity is required, and secondly because in the future, other vague criteria such as the absorption capacity could be created to reduce the waiting list for accession. Moreover, alternative projects such as the existing European Neighbour Policy (ENP) could emerge, as a way to cooperate in different areas with countries in order to create a secure environment alongside the EU borders, without giving them the status of member (Arenas Grazulius 2005, 325). [...]

[...] Telo, Mario Introduction, in Telo, Mario, ed., L'Union Européenne et les défis de l'Elargissement, 7-40. Bruxelles : Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles. Ugur, Mehmet Anchor-Credibility Problem in EU-Turkey Relations,” in Gower, Jackie, and Redmond, John, eds., Enlarging the European Union: The Way Forward, 139-53. Burlington and Hants: Ashgate. Wallace, Helen “Enlarging the European Union: Reflections on the Challenge of Analysis,” in Schimmelfennig, Frank, and Sedelmeier, Ulrich, eds., The Politics of the European Union Enlargement: Theoretical Approaches, 287-94. London and New York: Routledge (Taylor and Francis Group). Websites De Montbrial, Thierry. [...]

[...] Talking about European state' is very ambiguous as it does not imply which dimension of Europe is considered (therefore which limit it sets). Moreover, talking about a geographical ‘European state' is also ambiguous as there is no clear dividing line between Europe and Asia. However, although the EU cannot affirm what the frontiers of Europe are, it can define its own vision of a geographical Europe, while assuming all along that it will depend on its own geopolitical considerations, or name the countries that could be in the EU and the ones that could not, even without mentioning the conditions criteria. [...]

[...] Conclusion The question posed in this essay was the light of the forthcoming accession of Bulgaria and Romania, is the EU reaching the limits of its enlargement?'. In order to answer the question, I first talked about the previous enlargements and how the German reunification and the collapse of the Soviet Union challenged the EU's identity and the EU's conception of enlargement with the breaking up of the ideological blocks in Europe. Secondly, I tried to demonstrate how ambiguous the notion “European state” (one of the criteria for membership) was, given Europe could be defined by more criteria than just geography and even if it designed the geographic zone, a geographical Europe has not been scientifically defined yet. [...]