The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO

Abstract

In 2004 the European Union and NATO each added ten new member states, most from the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In order to prepare for membership, these countries had to make many thousands of institutional and legal adjustments. Indeed, they often tried to modernize in just a few years, implementing practices that evolved over many decades in Western Europe. This book emphasizes the way that policy elites in Central and Eastern Europe often 'ordered from the menu' of established Western practices. When did this emulation of Western practices succeed and when did it result in a fiasco? Professor Jacoby examines empirical cases in agriculture, regional policy, consumer protection, health care, civilian control of the military, and military professionalism from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Ukraine. The book addresses debates in institutionalist theory, including conditionality, Europeanization, and external influences on democratic and market transitions.

Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: test of early impact

“…The premise that democratisation in CEE has been impacted by the EU is widely accepted (Mayhew 1998;Smith 1998;Grabbe 2001Grabbe , 2006Papadimitriou 2001Papadimitriou , 2002Pridham 2002;Jacoby 2004;Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2004;Schimmelfennig, Engert, and Knobel 2006). Pridham (2005, 84-95) suggests that the motivation for joining the EU stemmed from four imperatives that the former communist countries faced in the midst of their political and market transition.…”

The EU Battle Groups in Sweden and the Czech Republic: What National Defense Reforms Tell Us about European Rapid Reaction Capabilities

“…Most importantly, after pledging just before their membership was achieved in 1999 to beat NATO recommendations by spending 2.2 per cent of GDP on defense, the Czech defense budget has steadily eroded in recent years. The original commitment was never achieved, 35 and by 2005, Czech spending was at 1.81 per cent of GDP. In the wake of a fiscal crisis, the new ODS government announced that spending would fall to a floor of 1.55 per cent of GDP, and four months later, in April 2007, the Minister of Defense opened the possibility that it would fall even below that.…”

Europeanisation and Foreign and Security Policy – Undermining or Rescuing the Nation State?

“…Institutional and policy modifications have occurred and still occur in central, eastern and southern European countries (particularly with a view to EU accession). By considering Europeanisation as domestic change occurring on account of an EU impact, it covers also the consequences of fulfilling EU requirements and of voluntary orientation towards EU standards in candidate countries (Grabbe, 2001;Jacoby, 2004); as well as domestic change in non-Member States such as Switzerland (Mach, Häusermann and Papadopoulos, 2003). Nor is Europeanisation even limited to the European continent: the attraction of the European/EU social, political or economic models to non-European countries can also be considered as Europeanisation.…”