ABSTRACT
The EU is not a static system; it has been in constant evolution since its creation. This chapter examines the issues and challenges arising from the geographical ‘widening’ of the EU, on the one hand, and from the ‘deepening and broadening’ of its institutions, competences and policies, on the other. These processes are interlinked: successive enlargements have affected the functioning of the EU institutions and the balance of competences, power and policy concerns within the EU (Nugent 2006; Wallace 2005). First, the 2004 and 2007 enlargements are briefly presented, with particular emphasis on the challenges that the enlargement process posed for EU institutions and policies and for territorial development and spatial planning in the old and new member states. The first section ends with a brief discussion of the prospects for future enlargement(s) of the EU. The second section analyses the institutional issues that the EU as a political system has been facing, in particular the debates surrounding the need for EU institutional reforms, and the changes brought about by the Treaty of Lisbon signed in 2007, which entered into force on 1 December 2009.
