ABSTRACT
Constant transformations of the global environment are often associated with complex, distant, and sometimes seemingly irrelevant concepts of international politics, making these already challenging events even more confusing and difficult for the general public to grasp. The European Union (EU) is the epitome of constant change and transformation. Once perceived as an exclusive Western European ‘club’, the EU was rendered almost unrecognizable by the addition of ten new members, including eight Eastern European ex-communist countries, in 2004. Yet, even this new profile was only transitory; in January 2007, the Union opened its doors to two new members, Bulgaria and Romania and it continues to look east-and southwards, contemplating the possibility of accession for the Muslim state of Turkey, for the Balkan states of Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania, and for the former Soviet states of Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
