ABSTRACT
Enlargement is often seen as the Union’s most successful foreign policy tool. In particular, enlargement towards the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) seems to prove the thesis that the European Union (EU) has transformative power. This chapter presents an evaluation of EU policy towards its immediate neighbours: by offering full membership, did the EU use its civilian power to expand its region of prosperity, democracy and good governance? First, the chapter develops the reasons behind the enlargement and exposes the different motives behind the policy. In the second part, the focus lies on the tools: which instruments and procedures have been used to stimulate the candidate countries (CCs) towards more democracy, better governance and other reforms? In the third part, we make a cautious assessment of the EU’s impact on the CEECs, and turn our attention to the unintended consequences. Some illustrations, based on the ‘Europeanisation’ of Poland, are also developed. The analysis puts the idea of enlargement as a civilian power policy par excellence into perspective.
