Towards Europe 2007. Identity, Institution-Building and the Constitution of Europe. ZEI Discussion Papers: 2001, C 85

From the Introduction. The results of Nice open the way for the beginning of EU Enlargement after the ratification of the Treaty of Nice, which means as early as 2003. This result proves that "deepening" and "widening" of the European Union remain intrinsically related, as has always been the case since the founding of the European Economic Community in 1957. The process of institution building in the European Union has certainly not come to a close. The leftovers of Nice are difficult enough. The Nice decisions have only shown the need for further and substantial institutional reforms in the European Union. In fact, the EU is forced to link a continuous commitment to its constitution-building with the rapidly approaching enlargement to Central and Eastern European countries – better: the anchoring of post-communist reform countries in the West. Further institutional adaptations and a definite enlargement towards Central and Eastern Europe force the EU to find ways and means to efficiently work with 27 or even more Union States and to make the EU capable of playing its role in the world of the twenty-first century