ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that a better framework for understanding post-enlargement Europe is in terms of greater unity. Enlargement has united most of Europe, but it has created a Union of disenchantment. The growing disenchantment of European populations now transcends the EastWest divide. Western Balkan states hoping to join the European Union (EU) in the next few years argue that absorption capacity' has been introduced as a whole new criterion for enlargement, serving as a convenient excuse for deferring the question of further enlargement. That enlargement has introduced new divisions in Europe is a point often made by analysts of European integration. When the EU membership perspective was first offered to Eastern European states, it was expected that they would be granted the same rights as existing member states. The collapse of the EU constitution added to a wider sense of political instability across Europe.
