The impact of EU enlargement on EU decision making

Abstract

The dissertation explores how decision making has been affected by the 2004 and 2007 enlargements. The research focuses on the fact that rather than an increase in the number of actors, it is the varying interests and new ideas which condition policy making and negotiations in EU institutions. This greatly manifests itself in coalitions which have become smaller in size, more difficult to form, and increasingly complex. This is due to the fact that Member States cannot agree on all issues and they will join that alliance which protects their priorities only. This has an impact on the speed and content, rather than amount of policy output and has become more pronounced in an EU comprising twenty seven Member States. The dissertation portrays this in chapter 3 by looking at negotiations for CAP and budgeting. This dissertation addresses flexibility and it argues that it is vital to tackle the drawbacks of having more states, i.e. more interests, in institutions. Indeed, chapter 2 renounces the scepticism that flexibility halts integration, but it emphasises that this should be limited because otherwise Member States would push in different directions. Moreover, chapter 4 suggests that the future of the EU can be successful if Member States incorporate a system of a two-speed Europe which would allow certain Member States to cooperate immediately in policies and legislation, whilst the rest follow suit after resolving the obstacles which restrain them from implementing those policies and regulations. This dissertation implies that the balance between widening and deepening of the EU is heavily influenced by coalitions and flexibility. The main point here is that consistent decision making guarantees deepening; however, disagreement between Member States entails that widening hampers deepening.