Save

The Race to EU Membership

Does the Acceleration Matter?

In: Southeastern Europe
Authors:
Georgi Dimitrov Department of European Studies, St. Kl. Ohridski University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria, georgidimitroves@gmail.com

Search for other papers by Georgi Dimitrov in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
and
Kaloyan Haralampiev Department of Sociology, St. Kl. Ohridski University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria, k_haralampiev@phls.uni-sofia.bg

Search for other papers by Kaloyan Haralampiev in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Download Citation Get Permissions

Access options

Get access to the full article by using one of the access options below.

Institutional Login

Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials

Login via Institution

Purchase

Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):

$40.00

Abstract

In 2020, the European Commission proposed a new framework of the EU’s enlargement policy, justified by the deficiencies of the Bulgarian and Romanian EU membership. This article provides empirical evidence from the accession negotiation process that Bulgaria and Romania didn’t belong to a common group, separated from the other post-communist societies, which joined the EU in 2004. Our analysis identified several patterns of accession, distinguished by the number of negotiation chapters closed and the pace at which that was accomplished, which are counter-intuitive. They all fall under the rule: exceptional final outcomes are achieved by countries, which accelerated to the greatest extent. The acceleration matters a lot but it didn’t count in the Fifth enlargement. This ought to be remedied in the case of the Western Balkan, since any discrepancy between a country’s performance and its political evaluation hampers the credibility of EU accession, which in turn diminishes pro-European efforts.

Content Metrics

All Time Past 365 days Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 570 115 11
Full Text Views 40 8 0
PDF Views & Downloads 84 20 0