Will further EU enlargement cause a crisis in the EU? An analysis E-Book

Julian Rudolf

• Herausgeber: GRIN Verlag
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,7, University of Applied Sciences Aschaffenburg, language: English, abstract: Since its foundation the European Union has expanded several times. At the beginning only 6 member states were part of the EU. In more than 50 years a lot more European states joined the European Union. Each expansion changed the European Union regarding cultural, economical and geographical aspects. Enlargement has always been an important topic for the EU and will also be important in the near future. Enlargement has a high impact on the European Union. This causes both positive and negative effects for the organization. The following seminar paper focuses on challenges and negative effects caused by the EU enlargement. Based on the potential challenges, it will focus on the question, whether further EU enlargement will cause a crisis in the European Union. The seminar paper is structured in four chapters. The first chapters give a short overview about the history of the EU Enlargement and explain the process of enlargement in detail. Following this, selected economic challenges and effects on the running of the EU caused by enlargement will be presented and discussed against the backdrop of the question, whether further EU enlargement can cause a crisis in the EU. The seminar paper will only focus on selected economic challenges and challenges for the institutions of the EU because of the limited number of pages.

Leseprobe

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Outline

List of tables

1 Introduction

2 Historical background and current developments of EU enlargement

2.1 From six states to 28 – Short History of the EU enlargement

2.2 Potential candidates and candidate countries

3 The accession process

3.1 Conditions for membership and important steps of the accession process

3.2 Legal basis and objectives of the European Union

4 Selected Challenges for the EU caused by enlargement

4.1 Effects on the running of the EU institutions

4.2. Selected economic challenges caused by enlargement

4.2.1. Demands on structural funds

4.2.2 Unemployment in the EU

4.3 The future of EU enlargement: Will further EU enlargement cause a crisis in the EU?

5 Conclusion

References list

List of tables

Table 1 Unemployment/Youth unemployment EU

28

Source: Eurostat (2015)

Table 2: Unemployment rate Candiate Countries

Source: Eurostat (2015)

Table 3: GDP in Capita per PPS

1 Introduction

Since its foundation the European Union has expanded several times. At the beginning only 6 member states were part of the EU. In more than 50 years a lot more European states joined the European Union. Each expansion changed the European Union regarding cultural, economical and geographical aspects. Enlargement has always been an important topic for the EU and will also be important in the near future.

Enlargement has a high impact on the European Union. This causes both positive and negative effects for the organization. The following seminar paper focuses on challenges and negative effects caused by the EU enlargement. Based on the potential challenges, it will focus on the question, whether further EU enlargement will cause a crisis in the European Union.

The seminar paper is structured in four chapters.

The first chapters give a short overview about the history of the EU Enlargement and explain the process of enlargement in detail. Following this, selected economic challenges and effects on the running of the EU caused by enlargement will be presented and discussed against the backdrop of the question, whether further EU enlargement can cause a crisis in the EU.

The seminar paper will only focus on selected economic challenges and challenges for the institutions of the EU because of the limited number of pages.

2 Historical background and current developments of EU enlargement

2.1From six states to 28 – Short History of the EU enlargement

The Treaty of Rome, which was signed on 25 March 1957, set up the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community.[1]The establishment of these two communities was the beginning of a Union between European states. Six European states signed the Treaty of Rome. These six founding countries were Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.[2]

Since the foundation of the EU, six phases of enlargement took place. The first enlargement was in 1973. Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom joined and the former EC increased from 6 to 9 member states.

The second and third enlargements took place in the 1980s. In 1981 Greece joined the EC, followed by Portugal and Spain in 1986. In 1995 Austria and the Scandinavian countries Sweden and Finland joined the EU. In 2004, eight Central and Eastern European states joined the EU. In addition to that, Malta and Cyprus joined the EU. This enlargement was the fifth Enlargement of the European Union and the largest enlargement so far. In 2007 Bulgaria and Romania achieved the EU membership. The membership of the two states was delayed, but the accession of Romania and Bulgaria completed the fifth enlargement.[3]In 2013 Croatia joined the European Union and is now the 28th country of the EU.[4]

2.2Potential candidates and candidate countries

It is important to focus on the potential candidate countries and especially the candidate countries, while analysing challenges caused by enlargement.