The European Union has long established itself as the world's most powerful regional supranational formation, which is achieved thanks to its economic results, geopolitical influence, and military might. European integration offers countries with an opportunity to boost their development and have greater impact in the international arena. However, the EU accession criteria are quite hard to meet, and many countries face significant difficulties in this respect, which is the case of Turkey. Since 1987, when Turkey officially applied for membership in the EU, the country hasn't completed its integration in the European community yet. This thesis investigates the main economic advantages and disadvantages in the context of Turkey's prospective accession to the European Union as a full-fledged member state.

This thesis deals with possibility of future enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to Georgia. The first part pursues readiness of Georgia to accede to NATO according to article 10 of The North Atlantic Treaty and The New Strategic Concept of NATO, economic and energy situation in Georgia and development of NATO -- Georgia relations. Other parts describe interests of great power, such as Russia, USA and EU, in region and examine their impact on possible access of Georgia to NATO.

The aim of this theses was to analyze the Visegrad group's cooperation towards the membership in NATO. The thesis is divided into five parts. The first part focuses on the NATO's chagnes it has been through since the end of the Cold War. Second chapter is describing the three major historical events which influenced the region of V4 countries for many decades. Third part is analazing the origin of the decision to enlarge NATO after the end of the Cold War. The fourth chapter is focusing on the security cooperation of NATO and EU and the final part's aim was to evaluate the cooperation of V4 countries on their way to NATO.

<p>This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family. The external political course of the government has one aim on the agenda: joining the EU, with no more alternatives for the future development of Latvia. From the point of view of Foucault’s post-modern theory the opportunities of the enlargement looked forward to by the authorities are viewed as operations of power with information about the pluses and minuses of the membership. Economic and political opportunities for Latvia in the EU and the security issues solvable under the European roof are explained by the transition of Latvian modern political discourse into the post-modern modality. Post-modern deconstruction strategies concern culture in the EU to the greatest extent. Latvian public, traditionally conservative, treats the desubjectivation of culture with skepticism and fears of globalization.</p>

<p>The general aim of this paper is to describe how the European Union can affect and transfer their conditionality politics to the Western Balkan countries. A specific purpose of this study is to describe and explain what we in this paper consider to be a specific additional membership criterion, regional cooperation that has been especially designed for this region. The point of departure for this paper is Europeanization theory that will be used to study the European Union’s impact on non EU-members in Europe. The theoretical Europeanization mechanisms are taken from Heather Grabbes “Europeanization model”. A descriptive case study method together with a theory consuming method will be used. After the wars in former Yugoslavia the now independent countries started in their own pace to move closer the European Union. The problems the individual countries faced in the beginning of the 21^st century were much a consequence of the war. This lead the European Union to establish a special political and economical regional framework, where regional cooperation was emphasized. Regional cooperation developed into one of the most important elements in the EU´s relation with the countries and is made a specific requirement under the Stabilization- and association process. Implications this paper makes are that regional cooperation can be considered as a specific requirement the EU use in the Western Balkan countries membership process and that EU have a series of “influencing tools” which works to promote regional cooperation in the Western Balkans.</p><!--EndFragment-->

This research addresses the issues of identity and culture in Latvia in the context of the upcoming European Union enlargement in 2004. Political self- determination of Latvia was historically indebted to culture. The phenomenon of cultural identity, so important 12 years ago when Latvian independence was regained, is largely ignored by politicians in the upcoming enlargement process. This is especially worth attention since the 8-th parliamentary elections took place in October 2002. The obvious lack of interest in cultural issues on the part of politicians is compensated by the apprehensions in the society (reflected in mass media) to loose Latvian specific culture and identity when joining the big European family. The external political course of the government has one aim on the agenda: joining the EU, with no more alternatives for the future development of Latvia. From the point of view of Foucault’s post-modern theory the opportunities of the enlargement looked forward to by the authorities are viewed as operations of power with information about the pluses and minuses of the membership. Economic and political opportunities for Latvia in the EU and the security issues solvable under the European roof are explained by the transition of Latvian modern political discourse into the post-modern modality. Post-modern deconstruction strategies concern culture in the EU to the greatest extent. Latvian public, traditionally conservative, treats the desubjectivation of culture with skepticism and fears of globalization.

The general aim of this paper is to describe how the European Union can affect and transfer their conditionality politics to the Western Balkan countries. A specific purpose of this study is to describe and explain what we in this paper consider to be a specific additional membership criterion, regional cooperation that has been especially designed for this region. The point of departure for this paper is Europeanization theory that will be used to study the European Union’s impact on non EU-members in Europe. The theoretical Europeanization mechanisms are taken from Heather Grabbes “Europeanization model”. A descriptive case study method together with a theory consuming method will be used. After the wars in former Yugoslavia the now independent countries started in their own pace to move closer the European Union. The problems the individual countries faced in the beginning of the 21st century were much a consequence of the war. This lead the European Union to establish a special political and economical regional framework, where regional cooperation was emphasized. Regional cooperation developed into one of the most important elements in the EU´s relation with the countries and is made a specific requirement under the Stabilization- and association process. Implications this paper makes are that regional cooperation can be considered as a specific requirement the EU use in the Western Balkan countries membership process and that EU have a series of “influencing tools” which works to promote regional cooperation in the Western Balkans. <!--EndFragment-->

EU is an organization that has expanded really fast during the last years. When you read about different EU membership processes you notice that some processes have been much faster than others. Spontaneously you think that this depends om that some countries have not been fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria. However, during the last decennium some scientists have written articles about motives that have affected the membership processes. The basic problem in my essay is how we are supposed to understand a membership process? Since I was interested in if I could see the same inconsistent behavior pattern in other membership processes I chose to study Turkey and Croatia. The purpose with my essay is to see how the Copenhagen criteria is or has been used in Turkey's and Croatia's processes and which motives that have been emphasized by scientists. After I have been reading official documents and articles I can conclude that both countries fulfill the political and economic criteria, but it is only Croatia that fulfills the administrative criteria. However, both countries have received critique about their treatments of minorities during the whole processes. According to scientists, security and identity have been strong motives in both countries' processes. When I have analyzed my material from an institutional perspective I can also conclude that EU's enlargement policy has affected the both countries' behavior and development. On the other hand, EU's enlargement policy has been affected by the context both within and outside the organization. Besides the policy has not seem to change the memberstates' preferences, which has resulted in that single memberstates have been acting on their own benefits.

In the period of post-Cold War, regional integration is one of the most important trend of international politics, European Union (EU) is the most successful example at present. The EU enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries is a new challenge for itself to run the regional organization. The old EU members would conflict with new EU members for their own advantages. Central and Eastern European countries have broken away from Russia¡¦s control, and expect its modernization will be enhanced by accession to the EU, but the conditions of EU in the area of politics and economy must be reached by Central and Eastern European countries. In this thesis the EU enlargement will be analyzed by Neo-functionalism and Liberal Intergovernmentalism.

<p>European Union (EU) Enlargement is more than a collaboration of nations; it has become a large-scale development project where countries facing significant economic challenges undergo enormous transitions in order to meet the standards for acceptance into the EU. This level of accelerated development calls for a strong integrated sustainable development oversight.</p><p>Sustainable development is a global development management philosophy that aims to conserve the integrity of the earth’s ecosystems while supporting economic growth and social welfare. It was developed by the Brundtland Commission during the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, its primary purpose was to reduce the resistance to the conservation of the environment while raising awareness for the importance of the earth’s natural resources, both for those who need it today and those who will need it tomorrow.</p><p>The aim of this study was to investigate the degree to which sustainable development has been implemented into the process of EU Enlargement. A snowball method was used to identify both qualitative and quantitative data through official documents and statements, reports, research, and web pages. First, I investigated both the EU and the UN definitions of sustainable development to see how they compared and how the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EU SDS) addressed EU Enlargement. Next, I examined the EU accession assistance programs available to candidate countries to determine if they were guided by sustainable development and if they had had any influence on the sustainable development within the candidate countries.</p><p>The definitions of sustainable development for both the EU and the UN were notably different. The UN:s definition provided a balanced approach to the Three Pillars of Sustainable Development, while the EU:s definition strongly supported the economic pillar decreasing the value of the environmental pillar. The EU SDS showed no marked reference to EU Enlargement and the accession assistance programs were not guided by sustainable development. Furthermore, the quantitative data collected from the EU sustainable development indicators in EuroStat indicated that the process of accession increased candidate countries GDP growth which also increased their capacity to meet the MDG’s and therefore, to implement sustainable development. However, while economic and social standards of the candidate countries were shown to increase while environmental conservation was shown to decrease. The significant lack of data designed to monitor the environmental pillar of sustainable development within the EU:s strategy indicated that the environmental pillar of sustainable development has been neglected. In conclusion, while the capacity to implement sustainable development has increased, implementation of sustainable development has not. Discussed in response to this is the need for a comprehensive EU SDS that reaches through the boundaries of member states and into candidate and candidate hopeful countries. Acting through an umbrella program the EU Enlargement SDS could bring both enlargement and sustainable development together cohesively increasing the chances that new EU members will make a more rapid advance in the process of sustainable development.</p>