EU enlargement as seen from Eastern Europe. Expectations, experiences, disappointments and Euro-enthusiasm

This text studies the imminent enlargement of the EU from the perspective of the Eastern European candidate countries that will be joining in 2004 (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia). This paper does not deal with the institutional or economic challenges that the EU faces. These are dealt with in other publications and are given constant attention in the daily news media. This text focuses on the candidates’ perception of the process of their accession to the Union and, in particular, their economic, political and security-related motives for joining the EU, the disappointments they have met in the process, their fears and expectations related to joining, the EU’s influence on regional co-operation and on the pacification of the region, Germany’s role as intermediary and the difficulties caused by joining the EU, given the weakness of public administrations, corruption and the problem of integrating the Gypsy minority.