Questioning EU Enlargement

This new book takes a unique approach to the study of European enlargement, tackling key questions. What kind of understanding of the EU do the enlargement processes speak to? Do decisions to enlarge mainly suggest that the EU is a free market, focusing on potential economic gains? Do they indicate that there is a sense of common European identity? Or is the focus primarily on securing respect for democratic principles and human rights? Offering up-to-date studies of the EU enlargement processes and country-specific in-depth analyses, Questioning EU Enlargement will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of European studies, international relations and politics.

Helene Sjursen is Senior Researcher at ARENA, Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway.

1. Introduction: Enlargement and the nature of the EU polity 2. Justifying the Second Enlargement: Promoting interests, Consolidating Democracy or Returning to the Roots? 3. In spite of the costs? Moral constraints on Spain's enlargement policy 4. Turkey's EU Politics: Consolidating democracy through enlargement? 5. The importance of solidarity: Denmark as a promoter of enlargement 6. More than simply expanding markets: Germany and EU enlargement 7. The case of Turkey: Are some candidates more "European" than others? 8. Protecting the idea of Europe: France and enlargement 9. Probably a problem-solving regime, perhaps a rights based union: European integration in Czech and Slovak political discourse 10. Double standards? Minority protection as a condition for membership 11. Conclusion: the European Union between values and rights