[SS from essay by Laszlo Bruszt, Director of the Central European University Democracy Institute; and Erik Jones, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies at the European University Institute.]
Faced with the threat posed by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has launched a new enlargement process that is more ambitious and complex than any it has ever undertaken. Ukraine is the most prominent of the new candidate countries, but the list includes Moldova, Georgia, and much of the western Balkans. And the European institutions—meaning the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament—are pushing hard to make sure there is credible progress to underpin both security and stability on the EU’s eastern and southeastern borders. But the EU cannot afford to repeat the experience of the western Balkans, where for the last two decades governments have pretended to reform while the European Union has pretended to want them to gain entry.
The problem for the EU is that its enlargement strategy may weaken or even undermine the democratic stability it seeks to preserve. Joining the EU goes far beyond the incorporation of tens of thousands of pages of European legislation into the national laws of candidate countries. It also includes a reengineering of their political institutions, market structures, and relations with third countries. This process necessarily requires a restructuring of the country’s firms and industries that will create both winners and losers on a massive scale.Faced with the threat posed by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has launched a new enlargement process that is more ambitious and complex than any it has ever undertaken. Ukraine is the most prominent of the new candidate countries, but the list includes Moldova, Georgia, and much of the western Balkans. And the European institutions—meaning the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament—are pushing hard to make sure there is credible progress to underpin both security and stability on the EU’s eastern and southeastern borders. But the EU cannot afford to repeat the experience of the western Balkans, where for the last two decades governments have pretended to reform while the European Union has pretended to want them to gain entry.
The problem for the EU is that its enlargement strategy may weaken or even undermine the democratic stability it seeks to preserve. Joining the EU goes far beyond the incorporation of tens of thousands of pages of European legislation into the national laws of candidate countries. It also includes a reengineering of their political institutions, market structures, and relations with third countries. This process necessarily requires a restructuring of the country’s firms and industries that will create both winners and losers on a massive scale.
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[SS from essay by Laszlo Bruszt, Director of the Central European University Democracy Institute; and Erik Jones, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies at the European University Institute.]
Faced with the threat posed by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has launched a new enlargement process that is more ambitious and complex than any it has ever undertaken. Ukraine is the most prominent of the new candidate countries, but the list includes Moldova, Georgia, and much of the western Balkans. And the European institutions—meaning the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament—are pushing hard to make sure there is credible progress to underpin both security and stability on the EU’s eastern and southeastern borders. But the EU cannot afford to repeat the experience of the western Balkans, where for the last two decades governments have pretended to reform while the European Union has pretended to want them to gain entry.
The problem for the EU is that its enlargement strategy may weaken or even undermine the democratic stability it seeks to preserve. Joining the EU goes far beyond the incorporation of tens of thousands of pages of European legislation into the national laws of candidate countries. It also includes a reengineering of their political institutions, market structures, and relations with third countries. This process necessarily requires a restructuring of the country’s firms and industries that will create both winners and losers on a massive scale.Faced with the threat posed by Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has launched a new enlargement process that is more ambitious and complex than any it has ever undertaken. Ukraine is the most prominent of the new candidate countries, but the list includes Moldova, Georgia, and much of the western Balkans. And the European institutions—meaning the European Council, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament—are pushing hard to make sure there is credible progress to underpin both security and stability on the EU’s eastern and southeastern borders. But the EU cannot afford to repeat the experience of the western Balkans, where for the last two decades governments have pretended to reform while the European Union has pretended to want them to gain entry.
The problem for the EU is that its enlargement strategy may weaken or even undermine the democratic stability it seeks to preserve. Joining the EU goes far beyond the incorporation of tens of thousands of pages of European legislation into the national laws of candidate countries. It also includes a reengineering of their political institutions, market structures, and relations with third countries. This process necessarily requires a restructuring of the country’s firms and industries that will create both winners and losers on a massive scale.