Suchergebnisse

European Union enlargement has long been an issue of concern. Article O of the Maastricht Treaty dealt with enlargement, while the Amsterdam Treaty supports the power of the European Parliament to accept or deny membership. The Europe Agreements have proven central to the application of Central & Eastern European Countries (CEEC), as has the establishment of institutions that facilitate bilateral meetings between individual CEEC countries & the EU. Agenda 2000 (published in July 1997) & the Luxembourg Summit preceded the formal beginning (Mar 1998) of the accession process. During this process, the applications of the five front-runners plus Cyprus entered the negotiation phase. Though a country may meet all the requirements for EU membership, the Copenhagen criteria require that the EU be able to "absorb" the new member. Therefore, while the EU is currently being pressured to enlarge toward Eastern Europe, the enlargement process continues to be constrained by restrictive membership rules. K. A. Larsen

European Union (EU) states increasingly deal with international interdependence through international policy coordination & integration. Joint decision making can be one way to deal with the negative externalities of interdependence. The question is whether European integration, an example of deep integration, has lessons for other integration schemes. Such lessons, if they exist, could help policymakers in other parts of the world plan their efforts better & perhaps avoid some mistakes. Many scholars believe that European integration is sui generis, but it is contended here that lessons can be learned & integration efforts in different parts of the world compared. 23 References. Adapted from the source document.

Among the Nordic countries Denmark has been a member of the European Community (EC) since 1973. The other Nordic countries, for various reasons, did not feel they could join the EC until now. Recently they negotiated the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement with the EC, but, partly because of its limits, Sweden, Finland and Norway have now applied for EC membership. If the Maastricht Treaty on European Union enters into force they will be seeking to join a Union which will further deepen the European integration process. This, however, depends on a second Danish referendum, probably in May 1993. Since Denmark has been a `minimalist' member of the EC and now has been given some opt-outs from the Maastricht Treaty at the Edinburgh meeting of the European Council in December 1992, it is to be expected that the Nordic participants in the European integration process will remain `difficult' partners for those who have more ambitious plans for the future.