ABSTRACT
This book has explored the European Union’s engagement with Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia, comparing governance in three policy sectors and synthesising material on the four countries and three policy sectors to distil broad comparative conclusions about the EU’s impact on domestic governance. The Copenhagen Criteria (1993) require applicants to achieve the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities; a functioning market economy, as well as the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union; and to have the ability to take on the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union. The Copenhagen Criteria only apply currently to two of our cases and previously to Slovenia; they never applied to Greece, but they represent a distillation of what the Commission (and member states) conceptualise as the essence of the European state and its governance. SEE is, therefore, at the core of the debates about what the EU is and what it will be. While the region clearly represents a major challenge for the EU (and the EU for the region), we do not believe there is anything exceptional about SEE that renders it and the EU incompatible. In the book we have demonstrated the importance of the capacity bargain (which is integral to the wider sovereignty bargain) in promoting change in the functional, political and administrative dimensions of engagement with the EU.
