Estonia S Transition To The Eu

Two decades on from the start of the ‘Singing Revolution’, and five years on from the Baltic States’ entry to the European Union, the time is ripe to take stock of Estonia’s remarkable transition from Soviet Republic to EU member state and address the challenges - some new, some ongoing - and uncertainties that have arisen following the country’s entry to the EU. This book locates the post-accession period within the broader sweep of post-communist transition and diagnoses the problems facing Estonia as the global economic downturn takes hold and a new mood of pessimism reigns in Central and Eastern Europe. Until recently, Estonia enjoyed an international reputation as an emerging high-growth ‘tiger economy’ and reform pioneer, not least in the sphere of IT. This economic success story, however, masked the continued problematic political and social legacies of the Soviet period, including the issue of ethnic integration, which again hit the headlines following riots in Tallinn in April 2007. This fully up-to-date appraisal - the first in English - covers all of the key issues, and will appeal to specialists in Baltic and Central and Eastern European politics and society, as well as to anyone with an interest in European integration more generally. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Baltic Studies.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - Region: Eastern Europe, grade: 1,0, University of Tartu (Center of Baltic Studies), course: Post-communist transition and Estonian experience, language: English, abstract: 1. Introduction After having discussed major theoretical approaches regarding political transition as far as post-communist countries are concerned in the first stage, it is due to fill this theoretical framework with examples and figures. Being aware of some common steps every country, which finds itself in a transitional process, has to undertake in order to establish a functioning democracy, the theory also shows that the course as well as the success towards the before said goal might be completely different. Against this background, the main aim of the current research is a comparison of three former communist states, namely Estonia, Czech Republic and Romania, regarding their progress of the transitional process up to the present moment, thereby mainly focusing on political aspects. In doing so, one has to realise that the evaluation of political transition is much more complicated than assessing economical transition for example, because neither success nor failure of can be just displayed in figures as it might be possible for economical issues. However, theory has been proofing that one can not assess developments of countries in transition while only focusing on economical outcomes. Even the neo liberal hardliner and American scientist and philosopher Francis Fukuyama has been admitting in his recent publication “States-Building”, that creating states under the rule of law is even more important than free markets . In respect to that, this work tries to use the few measures existing in order provide an objective comparative analysis. In addition to that it should be evaluated in what way the opportunity to join international organisations (NATO and especially the European Union) has been boosting political transition in the above mentioned countries. Moreover it should be found out whether there is a connection between successful transition and deeper European integration. For that matter, the first part compares general developments of political transition. The second part is analysing developments of the three countries regarding their way towards NATO and EU accession, which has in fact both become reality for Estonia and ČR. The last part tries to provide a conclusion about the outcomes of the (political) transition process as well as to point out remaining problems which are still due to resolve.

In 1998, Estonia became the first of the former Soviet republics to enter membership negotiations with the EU. This book traces the remarkable reforms that have propelled Estonia from the USSR to the threshold of the EU in less than a decade.

The Baltic States are unique in being the only member-states of the EU to have fought to regain their sovereignty from the Soviet Union, only then to cede it to Brussels in certain key areas. Similarly, no member-states have had to struggle as hard as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to preserve their identity after fifty years of Soviet nationality policy in the face of sub-state and supra-state challenges. The post-communist experience of the Baltic States thus allows us to examine debates about identity as a source of political power; the conditioning and constraining influence of identity discourses on social, political and economic change; and the orientation and outcome of their external relations. In particular, the book examines the impact of Russian and Soviet control of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Baltic independence movements of the late 1980s/early 1990s; the citizenship debates; relations with Russia vis-à-vis the withdrawal of the troops of the former Soviet Army; drawing of the shared boundary and the rights of Russian-speaking minorities as well as the efforts undertaken by the three Baltic States to rebuild themselves, modernise their economies, cope with the ensuing social changes and facilitate their accession to the EU and NATO.

Two decades on from the start of the ‘Singing Revolution’, and five years on from the Baltic States’ entry to the European Union, the time is ripe to take stock of Estonia’s remarkable transition from Soviet Republic to EU member state and address the challenges - some new, some ongoing - and uncertainties that have arisen following the country’s entry to the EU. This book locates the post-accession period within the broader sweep of post-communist transition and diagnoses the problems facing Estonia as the global economic downturn takes hold and a new mood of pessimism reigns in Central and Eastern Europe. Until recently, Estonia enjoyed an international reputation as an emerging high-growth ‘tiger economy’ and reform pioneer, not least in the sphere of IT. This economic success story, however, masked the continued problematic political and social legacies of the Soviet period, including the issue of ethnic integration, which again hit the headlines following riots in Tallinn in April 2007. This fully up-to-date appraisal - the first in English - covers all of the key issues, and will appeal to specialists in Baltic and Central and Eastern European politics and society, as well as to anyone with an interest in European integration more generally. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Baltic Studies.

The contributions to this edited volume discuss constitutional politics in 20 Central and Eastern European countries. The country chapters describe all constitutional amendments and new constitutions after the first post-communist constitution-making, all failed amendment attempts, and the political discourses about constitutional politics. Framed by a broad comparative chapter, the country studies are embedded in the established literature on constitutional politics. The book thus provides a better understanding of constitutional politics in the region and beyond.

More than 25 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, European integration remains a work in progress, especially in those Eastern European nations most dramatically reshaped by democratization and economic liberalization. This volume assembles detailed, empirically grounded studies of eleven states—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and the former East Germany—that went on to join the European Union. Each chapter analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations that have taken place in these nations, using a comparative approach to identify structural similarities and assess outcomes relative to one another as well as the rest of the EU.