1. EU Politics and Governance
Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo
European Union Center
Pusan National University
Produced: April 29, 2013

2. Understanding Enlargement and the European Union Neighborhood Policy
A Backgrounder /91:
─ Between the years 1945 and 1989/91, the Continent of Europe was split along two lines of political and economic philosophies
─ The Communist bloc of the Central and Eastern European countries was under the influence and control of the former Soviet Union (USSR)
─ The Capitalist bloc of the liberal and democratic countries of the Western Europe however, was under the global leadership of the United States of America
─ With the end of the Cold War (1989/1991), there have been political and economic readjustments of the Central and Eastern European countries towards Western Europe and those adjustments culminated with them joining the European Union and adopting the liberal, democratic and capitalist economic systems
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

3. Historical Chronology of the European Union Enlargement
tlationcholars have clearly had
─ First Enlargement (1973): Denmark, Ireland, United Kingdom
─ Second Enlargement (1981): Greece
─ Third Enlargement (1986): Spain, Portugal
─ De facto internal enlargement (1992): East Germany joining West Germany
─ Fourth Enlargement (1995): Austria, Finland, Sweden
─ Fifth Enlargement (2004): Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
─ Sixth Enlargement (2007): Bulgaria, Romania
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

4. Future European Union Enlargement
A Backgrounder:
─ Countries that show interests in joining the European Union are known as candidates countries for EU membership
─ In actuality, the following countries are candidate countries for EU membership:
Turkey which applied for EU membership in 1987 is a member of NATO and
has had a long-standing association agreement with the European Union
─ Due to some political and non-political reasons, Turkish application to join the EU has always created some reticence and outright rejection from other EU Member countries
─ As a response to the Turkish interests in joining the EU, in 2005, the European Council opened accession negotiations with Turkey and with Croatia as well
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

5. Future European Union Enlargement
A Backgrounder:
2. The Western Balkan Countries: This refers to countries that at one point were part of the former Yugoslavia and under non-market and capitalist forms of economic productions
─ For pragmatic and practical reasons, they have turned their attention to joining the EU since the explosion of the former Yugoslavia and have sought to speed up their economic reconstruction and consolidate their nascent democratic institutions
─ As a response to the interests of those countries, in 2005, the EU for instance, gave a ´candidate country´ status to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
─ As of today, potential candidates for joining EU membership are Serbia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

6. What are the Membership Conditions for joining the European Union?
1. Legal requirements for EU membership
As a regional organization composed of a liberal, democratic group of countries, the EU has always been open to new members as long as they are willing to take upon themselves the ´acquis communautaire´ and sign up to the founding treaties of the Community/Union
As such, article 237 of the Treaty of Rome states that ´any European state may apply to become a member of the Community´;
And article F of the Maastricht Treaty reiterates that the member states that make up the EU shall have ´systems of government […] founded on the principles of democracy´
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

7. What are the Membership Conditions for joining the European Union?
2. The Copenhagen Criteria
The Copenhagen Criteria were adopted by the European Council in 1993 and they are simply three criteria that any European country that aspires to become a member of the EU should fulfill and by the time that a country becomes a member it must have the following in place:
“Stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities”
“A functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union”
“The ability to take on the obligations of membership, including support for the aims of the Union. They must have a public administration capable of applying and managing EU laws in practice.”
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

8. What are the Membership Conditions and Strategy for joining the European Union?
3. The Accession Process
The process or negotiations of joining EU are carried-out between the candidate country and the European Commission that has the mandate to undertake those negotiations on behalf of the EU and Member States
Upon the completion of the entry negotiations, existing member states have to unanimously take a decision convening in the Council to allow the candidate country to join the EU
When that is done, the European Parliament in its turn must give its assent through an affirmative vote cast by an absolute majority of its members
Finally, once all those conditions are being met, the accession treaties must then be ratified by the existing member states and the candidate country based on each country´s own constitutional policies and arrangements
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

9. What are the Membership Conditions and Strategy for joining the European Union?
4. The Pre-Accession Assistance Strategy
As for the Pre-Accession Assistance Strategy, the European Union assists the candidate countries with pre-accession funds while negotiating their membership to the Community
This is to help the candidate countries to build or beef up their structural projects in order to put their economies at pace with the market-based economies of the existing members of the Union and accelerate their convergence to the productive and competitive market economies
Another aim of the pre-accession funds is to also help the candidate country or countries to fulfill the obligations that their membership in the EU calls for
As a case in point, the EU disbursed a package of €41 billion for the enlargement of 2004 in order to help the 10 upcoming members to fulfill the obligations of their EU membership
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

10. Issues and Challenges to further EU Enlargement
1. Geographic/Widening Concerns
In the last decade or so there has been a growing concern among many Europeans as regards to the final borders of the EU, i.e., physical border
The same concern of physical border of the EU translates into ´European Identity concerns´
2. Political and Geostrategic Concerns
The Political and Geostrategic Concerns of future EU enlargement are exacerbated by Member States differing political and economic interests, that is, some favor some countries to join while others are against the membership of some potential candidates
Case in point, some EU countries favor Turkey´s membership while others are fervently against it, some want to see Ukraine be part of EU while others are against that
In countries such as the Switzerland however, their nationals simply do not want to join EU
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

11. 4. Administrative and Institutional Concerns
As for now, the EU interinstitutional arrangement was laid-out in the Treaty of Nice and aimed at governing the current 27 member states, and adding more members will then require that existing member states convene an intergovernmental conference to review and amend the EU treaties again
Not reviewing the existing institutional arrangements with over 30 members of the EU as projected will create institutional and governing paralysis which the EU cannot afford
There are also concerns regarding the official EU languages, there are currently 23 official languages and concerns are adding more official languages may make some regional European identities irrelevant and that is exactly what EU tries to avoid through its promotion policy of regional and national identities within its overall European Identity Formation
April 29, 2013                    Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

12. EU Neighborhood Policy and Stabilisation and Association Agreements
Candidate Countries vs Non-Candidate Countries
The European Union regulates and governs its trade, economic and political relations and cooperation with the countries in the Southern Mediterranean and the Southern Caucasus as well as with countries in Eastern Europe whose relations with the EU are not well defined or clear for either ideological or geostrategic reasons through the European Union Neighborhood Policy
As for the potential candidate countries however, the EU uses its Stabilisation and Association Agreements to regulate its political as well as trade and economic relations with the said-countries
All the while, the Stabilisation and Association Agreements open up the possibility for a country to become a candidate and eventually an EU member
April 29, 2013                    Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)

13. Thank you for your time and attention
April 29, 2013                     Dr. Mahamat K. Dodo (PNU EU Center)