Is EU enlargement still the main policy instrument for the unification of Europe?

Abstract

Largely relying on the 2004/07 enlargement process and the soft power of the values and norms that were incorporated as normative principles in its accession conditions, the European Union has successfully supported the peaceful development, democratisation and economic marketisation of post-communist East Central Europe and the Baltics. However, the EU’s impact on developments in the other two regions of post-communist Europe – the Western Balkans (WB) and six post-Soviet Eastern Partnership (EaP) states – has been less positive by far. The paper argues that the primary reasons for the EU’s less successful impact on developments in the WB and EaP countries should be sought in the EU's decision to stop using the enlargement process as the main instrument for promoting and spreading EU values and norms to candidate countries following the completion of the 2004/07 enlargement round. While the EU had persistently refused to include the EaP states in the enlargement process until very recently, the enlargement process for the WB states since 2007 has primarily been used to address stability–security challenges in the region and advance related foreign policy goals and priorities of E Member States