Three years after the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, the paper asks what has changed in how the Council does business, and what significance enlargement may have had. It assesses how the Council has 'survived' the doubling of membership, and whether this survival has been accompanied by qualitative changes in the nature of Council work. The paper relies on original quantitative evidence and qualitative insights from interviews and case studies. The findings suggest that the Council has successfully assimilated the new members in its decisionmaking dynamics and has adapted its internal working methods to the new conditions. Yet some qualitative changes can be detected in the process, with the Council becoming more 'bureaucratised', as well as in the output, with legislation decreasing in importance and changing in substance. The role of enlargement as an explanatory factor for these changes remains nevertheless, problematic to pin down: there are many other sources of change in EU policies and processes; and there are very rarely coalitions of 'new' versus 'old' Member States, acceding countries generally joining issue-based coalitions in which larger Member States continue to play the leading role. The continuing dynamics of change appear to be more important in interinstitutional relations than inside the Council itself.

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This chapter examines the different regional arrangements that have emerged around the globe. It considers whether there has been a uniform process of regional cooperation and integration across all continents, the driving forces in the establishment of various forms of regional cooperation, and the extent to which cooperation at the regional level changes the nature of international politics. After clarifying the various concepts and definitions associated with regionalism, the chapter discusses relevant developments in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. In particular, it looks at regional arrangements in Eurasia and the post-Soviet states. It also explores the process of European integration as well as the similarities and the differences among the various regional arrangements, with particular emphasis on the unique circumstances that shaped the emergence of the European Union. There is an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether regional cooperation strengthens the state.

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