The Constitution For Europe And An Enlarging Union

Recoge: 1. Formalising European Constitutionalism; Potencial added value or "Death by Constitution" - 2. Towards a more democratic union? Comments on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe - 3. Institutional reform in the European Union - 4. The National Parliaments in an enlarged Europe and the Constitutional Treatry - 5. The "principle" of differentiation in an enlarged European Union; unity in diversity? - 6. Impact of European Union enlargement on EMU; monetary split-up into "ins" and "outs" as a temporary or permanent phenomenon? - 7. Differentiation in European Union citizenship law; the Cyprus problem - 8. The impact of the agriculture on the success of enlargement - 9. European counter-terrorism in the context of enlargement: challenges ahead - 10. EU enlargement-membership conditions applied to future and potential member states - 11. Minority protection in the EU-Challenges ahead - 12. Turkey's democratisation in light of its EU candidate status; EU enlargement at a crossroads.

The development of EU enlargement has raised many thorny issues unanticipated by the framers of the EC Treaty. A significant upshot of these issues is that the concept of European identity – defined in terms of such factors as culture, history and economics – has supplanted the long-dominant theme of ‘widening and deepening,’ particularly since the Union’s expansion has become primarily eastward. The major contribution of this important book lies in its analysis of the conceptualization and perception of enlargement from various points of view, focusing on the concerns of stakeholders and the ‘identity’ conflicts and uncertainties incurred by enlargement initiatives. In the course of its presentation, it details the actual pre-accession Europeanization process and its complex history. Among the key elements discussed are the following: the conflict between ‘widening’ and ‘deepening’ and the effect on EU institutional reform; institutional requirements on candidate countries; pre-accession criteria and negotiations; administrative capacity, judicial capacity, and legal approximation in accession states; capacity of the EU to absorb new Member States; and EC law as part of European identity. Also covered are specific historical details of particular pre-accession negotiations (e.g., Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta, and Cyprus), the still inconclusive negotiations with Turkey and the Western Balkan states, and political factors involved in the non-accession of Norway, Iceland and Switzerland. Assembling powerful evidence and applying incisive analysis, the author’s conclusion shows that, absent further (and major) EU institutional reform, it will be difficult for an enlarging Union to continue to ‘deliver the goods.’ A watershed in the continuing great debate on the fulfilment of the EC Treaty’s determination to foster and promote ‘an ever closer union of the peoples of Europe,’ this book will prove invaluable to anybody interested in the European integration project, particularly lawyers, academics, officials and policymakers in the EU Member States.

In the wake of the EU's biggest enlargement, this book explores the adaptation of the constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for membership in the European Union. In response to the painful past, these new constitutions were notably closed to transfer of powers to international organizations, and accorded a prominent status to sovereignty and independence. A little more than a decade later, the process of amending these provisions in view of the transfer of sovereign powers to a supranational organization has proved a sensitive and controversial exercise. This book analyses the amendments against the background of comparative experience and theory of sovereignty, as well as the context of political sensitivities, such as rising euroscepticism ahead of accession referendums.

This book sheds light on the contradictions underlying the European Union enlargement process, specifically to the Western Balkans, challenging the common assumption that the integration of an extended European space might be possible without mutual transformation of the institutions and agencies involved. Sekulić maps the institutional dimension of the accession process, and analyses how the conditionality principle shapes and constrains the space for negotiation within the EU. Combining ethnographic research with the discourse analysis of the European Commission’s reports and documents from 2008 to 2019 concerning the Western Balkan countries, the book also explores the perceptions and agency of the individuals involved in this process. The European Union and the Paradox of Enlargement will be of interest to students and scholars of European integration, the sociology of Europe and the EU, and Eastern European and Western Balkan studies.

This book seeks to comprehend the evolving nature of the European Union following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the failure of the European Constitution. Its prime focus is the last wave of enlargement that has profoundly transformed the EU. Although there are many parallels between the European integration process and state building processes, the Union is nothing like a Westphalian super state. The new emerging polity resembles a kind of neo-medieval empire with a polycentric system of government, multiple and overlapping jurisdictions, striking cultural and economic heterogeneity, fuzzy borders, and divided sovereignty. The book tries to spell out the origin, the shape, and the implications of this empire. The aim of this book is to suggest a novel way of thinking about the European Union and the process of European integration. The book shows 'two Europes' coming together following the end of the cold war. It proposes a system of economic and democratic governance that meets the ever greater challenges of modernization, interdependence, and globalization. It identifies the most plausible scenario of promoting peaceful change in Europe and beyond. The author argues that mainstream thinking about European integration is based on mistaken statist assumptions and suggests more effective and legitimate ways of governing Europe than through adoption of a European Constitution, creation of a European army, or introduction of a European social model. The book covers many fields from politics, and economics to foreign affairs and security. It analyzes developments in both Eastern and Western Europe. It also gives ample room to both theoretical and empirical considerations.

A Constitution for Europe: Why do we need it? Is it really better than the current treaty-based system? Which difficulties faces the ratification process? This book answers these questions and provides an analysis of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. It visualizes the huge importance of the document for a working EU, emphasizes the prospects of a really unified continent and shows that Europe as well as the EU stands at the crossroads of its future fate. Hopefully, its politicians and people do not decide to turn into a blind alley.

This book's principal aim is to critically address the institutional and substantive legal issues resulting from European enlargement, chiefly those relating to the legal foundations on which the enlarged Union is being built. The accession of new Member States creates the potential for a stronger and more powerful Europe. Realising this potential, however, will depend on the ability of the EU to develop functional and effective governance structures, both at the European level and at the level of the individual Member States. While the acquis communautaire will ensure that formal laws in the new Member States will be aligned with those of existing members, the question remains as to how effective institutions will be in implementing changes, and what effects the imposed changes will have on the legitimacy of the new legal framework. This book, containing the work of leading scholars in law and social sciences, examines the current and future legal framework for EU governance, and the role that new members will - or will not - play in the creation of that framework, paying particular attention to the specific challenges membership in the EU poses to the acceding states of Central and Eastern Europe. It is a book which will contribute to and influence debates over constitutionalism and legal harmonisation in the EU.

The accession of eight post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe (and also of Malta and Cyprus) to the European Union in 2004 has been heralded as perhaps the most important development in the history of European integration so far. While the impact of the enlargement on the constitutional structures and practices of the EU has already generated a rich scholarly literature, the influence of the accession on constitutionalism, democracy, human rights and the rule of law among the new member states has been largely ignored. This book fills this gap, and addresses the question of the consequences of the "external force" of European enlargement upon the understanding and practice of democracy and the rule of law and among both the main legal-political actors and the general public in the new member-states. A number of leading legal scholars, sociologists and political scientists, both from Central and Eastern Europe and from outside, address these issues in a systematic and critical way. Taken together, these essays help answer a fundamental question: does the European Union have the potential of promoting and consolidate democracy and human rights?