Agenda 2000: A Blueprint for Successful EU Enlargement?

Soveroski, Marie (1998) Agenda 2000: A Blueprint for Successful EU Enlargement? EIPASCOPE, 1998 (1). pp. 1-4.

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Abstract

[From the Introduction]. The signing of the Joint Declaration on the Establishment of Official Relations between the EEC and COMECON, in June 1988, permitted the opening up of bilateral relations between the EEC and the Countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs). Trade and Co-operation Agreements were signed with the CEECs, in fairly rapid succession, shortly thereafter. However, developments continued to be fast-paced and far-reaching – dramatically embodied by the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 – and many of these agreements were superseded, even before coming into force, by the Europe Agreements, which followed. The European Community, and now the European Union, has struggled to keep up with these developments, and to respond in a way that would foster the transitions taking place and further the process of European integration, while keeping in mind concerns of the Union and its Member States. In the less than ten years which followed the opening up of relations, all ten CEECs have submitted applications for EU membership. On 15 July 1997 the Commission issued Agenda 2000, which included its opinions on these applications, as well as its view on the impact of enlargement on such areas as the EU budget, economic and social cohesion, and agricultural policy. This long-awaited avis was expected to indicate how both the Union and the applicant states should prepare for, and successfully undertake, enlargement, but does it fulfil this expectation?

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