Handbook on European enlargement: a commentary on the enlargement process

Abstract:

In order to establish a more stable and prosperous Europe, the European Union's (EU) official opinion is that enlargement and expansion will eventually benefit everyone concerned. This is partly the motivation behind plans to include a further eight countries in the Union from the Central and Eastern regions of Europe, along with Malta, Cyprus and the Balkans. With increasing enlargement, however, as history has shown, comes the attendant problems of political, economic and legal revision, in order that the European Union can meet the demands of a dynamic and always changing political, cultural, and socio-economic unit. This book, as the title suggests, provides both a handbook or guide for, and an analysis of, the intricate area of European enlargement, in its pre-accession and accession stages, as well as the important implications of an ever-expanding EU for the modern twenty-first century world.

By being such a huge project (and volume), the book manages to cover many areas and issues under the rubric of enlargement. These include but are not exhausted by he following categories: questions concerning the EU's structure, candidate countries, international agreements, the free movement of goods/persons, agriculture, the fisheries, workers, economic competition, the environment, banking, taxation, asylum and migration, corruption and crime, science and technology, telecommunications, statistics, energy, transport, tourism, administration and institutions.

The book is aimed at both practitioners and researchers seeking to understand the process of enlargement in all of its diversity and complexity.

This publication is distributed by Kluwer Law International (Aspen Publishers).