"From nation state to member state: Europeanization and enlargement"

This paper analyzes EU enlargement to explore the impact of membership in the European Union on nation states. Due to the relatively rapid process of adjustment to the demands of membership specified by the acquis communautare, the current wave of enlargement offers a striking view into the future of European integration. This paper seeks to bridge the literatures on Europeanization, which analyzes national factors to explain variation to the impact of EU policies, and on enlargement, which has largely focused on technical aspects of inter-govemmenral bargaining Using recent data on accession negotiations, the paper analyzes changes in applicants' national policies and institutions, highlighting the demands created by the EU's regional policies. The paper finds that enlargement creates pressures for convergence as a result of conditionality which requires that countries adopt EU polities and institutions prior to membership