European Union’s Fifth Enlargement Process: Economic and Political Dimensions

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This study, while focusing on the fifth enlargement, tries to analyze the economic and political factors that are considered important by the current and prospective members in the process. In the fifth enlargement, because they had just emerged from a very different system, the candidates from the Central and Eastern Europe were considered as inferior in a sense. The current members expected a deep transformation, in accordance with the framework of conditionality, from the candidates while they also tried to keep its supply side cost at a minimum. In the accession process, the prerequisite reforms for the candidates in order to facilitate their transition to a functioning market economy and democracy; the potential effects of the enlargement on the current and prospective members were evaluated in detail. In this context, a possibility of a tide of immigration to the current members, potential effects on the employment, the required period for economic convergence, competitiveness; domestic political structure of the candidates, democratization, rule of law, minorities, border conflicts, promotion of state capacity were among the important issues.

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European Union , fifth enlargement of the European Union , conditionality

Ege Academic Review (EAR)

94

Ege Academic Review (EAR)