Europe

Europe

EU ENLARGEMENT
The process of enlargement is seen as an historic opportunity to promote stability and prosperity throughout Europe. The criteria for EU membership requires candidate countries to achieve “stability in institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the respect and protection for minorities; a functioning market economy , as well as the capacity to cope with competition pressures and current market forces within the Union.

The most intriguing question is concerned with the process of ‘deepening Europe’ and how this process may prove disadvantageous to the EU. How will the European Union successfully combine a deepening and widening of the EU as both are inextricably two opposing procedures? PRO-FEDS AND EUROSKEPTIC The combination of the two could become a recipe for disaster; from inefficient decision making to a weakening of the core EU institutions as ‘euroskeptics’ are heavily armed with plenty of ammunition with regards to opposing further integration. Nonetheless, it is clear that the EU has already made its decision and this decision is one heavily favouring a deepening as opposed to a widening.  

Turkey has also had negative economic indicators for 2010 due to the current global slump which has continued to curb the demands in trade for Turkish export. The 2004 enlargement can be used as a leading example in the problems trade can bring in the process of widening. In 2004 the EU’s intrastat survey scheme, used to clarify whether further enlargement would increase or decrease trade, had simply been affected by the poor timing of the enlargement which in turn promoted major anticipation among the EU. Despite the fact that these new-10 member states did eventually become the most important trading partners to the old member states by helping maintain and create jobs, the prospect of the EU having a repeat scenario with this situation with Turkey could prove risky considering the current economic crisis....