The Access of Central and Eastern European Countries to the European Union

This chapter deals with the process which brought about ten countries, former communist economies, of Central and Eastern Europe (CEEC) to join the European Union (EU) between 2004 and 2007. The recent development of the EU enlargement, the adhesion of Croatia in 2013, the future perspective of enlargement opened by the East partnership, and the situation of the current candidates to the EU will be analysed as well. As far as the New Member States (NMS) of the European Union are concerned, this chapter will analyse conditionality and compliance of the candidates. Recession was severe both in CEEC and in Former Soviet Republics (FSR) after the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of USSR in 1991. The transformation was very deep both from an economic and political perspective. However, I argue, during the transformation and the economic recovery CEEC were, to some extent, favoured by EU conditionality and membership, while FSR were not interested by this process. At the same time, the old EU member States (EU 15) benefited greatly from trade with CEEC and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) directed to CEEC. In fact in CEEC labour cost is cheap and resources along with raw materials are abundant. Very likely, EU membership was the crucial factor, which influenced transition in CEEC, and which determined better performance of most CEEC with respect to FSR. Moreover, political transition (concerning civil rights and political liberties, democracy and traditional liberal values) was more successful in CEEC than in FSR. In this respect, the role played by the EU, where clearly these values are more advanced than in most of the rest of the world, was crucial for the New Member States of the EU.