ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes that empire scholarship needs to more explicitly address and acknowledge all three assumptions such as coercion, sustainability and hierarchy specifically as they pertain to the new Central European Union (EU) members. The EU as empire scholarship argues that Central Europeans had no choice but to agree to reforms demanded by the acquis, but it does not address possible available alternatives. This historical context is scantly discussed by new empire scholarship and when it is, it tends to be explained as the result of a 'subordination' mentality of the Eastern half of Europe to the Western one. In the case of the EU, the core sent technical assistance and modernization resources to the Eastern periphery before and after EU enlargement, to bring it up to speed with the core's market reforms and infrastructure modernization requirements. EU officials did travel to candidate countries to offer assistance where templates for legislation were missing.
