ABSTRACT
Without doubt Germany has been the keenest and the most influential supporter of the Eastern enlargement of the EU. In fact, it is safe to say that without Germany’s support enlargement in 2004 would not have taken place when it did, indeed, it is not clear whether it would have occurred at all within the near future. Various reasons have been advocated to explain Germany’s support for enlargement. These ranged from egoistic self-interest (Markovits and Reich 1991) through a more complex notion of ‘benign hegemony’ (Bulmer et al. 2000) to an idealistic category of ‘civilian power’ (Tewes 2001). Outside academia the dominant view is that Germany’s enlargement policy is motivated first and foremost by its economic, security and political self-interests.
