Eastern Enlargement and the European Security Agenda, Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series. Vol. 4 No. 8, August 2004

At the end of the Cold War the security threats facing Europe underwent a dramatic change. With the virtual implausibility of interstate military conflicts came an increased risk of enthonationalist violence, as exemplified by the wars in the former Yugoslavia, organized crime, terrorism, and immigration, among others. The attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States further transformed the global security context, effectively making the obliteration of international terrorism the primary US foreign and domestic policy goal. The intensification of the efforts to combat terrorism further underscored the indivisibility of the European Union’s internal and external security and gave rise to a renewed debate on the Union’s global voice. At the same time, the European Union is embarking upon one of the most challenging and momentous enterprises of its history - enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta. The accession of ten new member states will inevitably change the size and shape of the EU and influence its decision-making processes as well as increase the range of issues brought to the table, including common foreign and security policies. This paper will look at some issues that play an important part in the security agenda of the European Union and its member states and will outline some of the potential challenges the eastern enlargement poses in these areas. It will argue that the securitization of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe has occurred mainly along the dimensions of labor migration and organized crime as a danger for the socioeconomic welfare of West European societies in general. The focus on combating terrorism, while vitally important, necessitates continuing cooperation with the accession countries in the efforts to strengthen their porous borders, without creating new lines of division on the continent. While the new members are likely to contribute to the formulation of more Atlanticist foreign and security policies, a convergence between the interests of the current and new member states is likely to occur, thereby strengthening the European Union’s voice in global affairs. The paper is divided into two broad sections, the first one of which deals with the “softer” security issue of immigration and the threats it presents to the public order in the European Union in terms of competition for scarce jobs, organized crime, and terrorism as a key security threat. The second section addresses the state of common European foreign and security policies in the aftermath of the war with Iraq and the impact of enlargement on their scope and effectiveness, as well as on the transatlantic relationship