A new era in the dynamics of European integration?1

In the previous decades, the European Union (EU) has succeeded in integrating new member countries, in economic and in political respects. Three main reasons lie behind this successful integration process: First, the solidarity of richer EU members with their poorer counterparts, second, the effectiveness of the integration policies conducted by the EU, and third, the willingness of new member countries to arouse and accomplish an economic catch-up process towards EU average levels. With the enlargement by ten new members in May 2004, the EU is facing the biggest challenge in its history. Thereby, the population of the Union will rise by 25%, while its overall GDP will increase by merely 5%. Apart from the economic problems that may emerge because of this discrepancy, further difficulties may arise because some of the new entrants are former centrally planned economies that have not yet completed their transformation processes towards free market-economies. In this paper, we want to investigate whether the Union may be moving towards a new era in the dynamics of integration. In doing so, we will analyze some of the main challenges th