Europeanisation Goes East: Power and Uncertainty in the EU Accession Process

Abstract

This paper sets out a framework for extending the study of Europeanisation in the existing European Union to the effects of the EU in central and eastern Europe. It starts with the prima facie case that the effects on public policy are similar in nature to those observed in the current EU-15, but broader and deeper in scope. The applicants are taking on all the obligations of EU membership, so the domestic effects of transferring policies and institutions to them are likely to be comparable with the effects of the EU on its current member-states, even though the political relationship is different. Europeanisation mechanisms identified in the literature on the EU also operate in the applicant countries, given that they are subject to substantially the same pressures for adaptation. However, there are two major differences: the first is the wider scope of the EU’s agenda in the candidate countries, which goes far beyond the requirements of membership for the existing member states. The second is the political context of a power relationship between the EU and the candidates that is based on conditionality for accession. The asymmetry of power between the applicants and the Union gives the EU more coercive routes of influence in the applicants’ domestic policy-making processes than in the existing EU because the applicants face additional conditions that current members do not. But there are also constraints on how the EU uses its potential influence in the applicant countries, in particular the multiple dimensions of uncertainty built into the accession process. Heather Grabbe Centre for European Reform 29 Tufton Street London, SW1P 3QL United Kingdom Tel: 020-7233-1199 Fax: 020-7233-1117 heather@cer.org.uk