Partly opposition is also due to structural difficulties in the current candidates that make it more challenging to meet the requirements for EU accession. The democratic front-runners among the post-communist countries democratised without much influence of the EU.
At the other end of the spectrum, the EU was fairly powerless in countries with illiberal governments. But once the new governments carried out political reforms that brought the country closer to accession, these reforms were maintained even if the previous governing parties returned to power. Such parties usually had to moderate their electoral platforms to appeal to voters; and once elected, as they also had to fear an electoral backlash if they endangered the progress that had been made towards EU accession through reversing democratic reforms.
However, the majority requirements in the European Council and the European Parliament to use Article 7 are extremely demanding. However, despite the decline in the leverage of EU institutions towards illiberal practices in the Member States after accession, a first comprehensive study undertaken five years after eastern enlargement found no systematic evidence of a backsliding in the post-communist new member states.
Finally, there has been some deterioration in the quality of democracy in four of the ten post-communist new members, 10 namely in Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. Backsliding is most pronounced in Latvia and Bulgaria, where democracy quality has declined persistently since and respectively, while in Romania which had been already lagging behind the other Member States and Hungary, the deterioration is a more recent dip.
These drops in democratic quality in Hungary since and Romania in can be directly attributed to specific behaviour of their governments, which in turn amounted to a crucial challenge for EU institutions to rein in breaches of liberal democratic values in the Member States. Through these constitutional changes, the government has concentrated and entrenched its power in ways that contravene the principles of liberal democracy without, however, formally violating the rule of law.
For example, it weakened the constitutional court, seized control of key public institutions by packing them with party loyalists and extending mandates much beyond the term of parliament , changed the electoral law, and requires two-thirds majorities to change some of its policies.
In Romania, the breaches of democracy were less subtle. In May a new centre-left parliamentary majority suspended the centre-right president. It used emergency ordinances to remove constitutional checks on the impeachment procedure, including a weakening of the constitutional court and a lifting of the 50 percent participation quorum for the referendum required to validate the impeachment.
Centre-right governments and party groups in the European Parliament made it clear that they were opposed to using Article 7 against the Hungarian government. Without this threat, the EU was unable to challenge the broader underlying problems. The Commission was merely able to bring about some incremental changes on isolated issues that had a separate basis in EU law and made it possible to use infringement procedures to obtain compliance.
By contrast, the Romanian government complied fairly swiftly and comprehensively with the demands of EU institutions to redress the breaches of democratic principles. However, it might depend on a fairly demanding constellation of favourable conditions that make it possible both to use social pressure effectively and to make material threats.
Ten years after the first eastern enlargement, attitudes in the EU towards further enlargement — both among publics and among Member State governments — have become noticeably more negative. Of course it should not be forgotten that the incumbent Member States were also rather reluctant about the enlargement.
The Member States did not acknowledge enlargement as a shared objective until ; it took until to start accession negotiations with the first post-communist countries; and, as mentioned above, the accession treaties were distinctly unfavourable to the new members. Even in Member States, where the government was among the strongest supporters of enlargement, such as Germany or Austria, public opinion was distinctly negative. Nonetheless, public opinion has become noticeably more negative about enlargement since A recent review of the literature on public opinion towards enlargement in the EU reveals increasing hostility among EU citizens.
And even when earlier surveys still indicted net support, underneath the aggregate support there was considerable, and growing, opposition in many of the old Member States, most notably France, Germany and Austria. In these countries, public opposition to enlargement remains strongest. There also seems to be an east-west divide in attitudes towards further enlargements: in all old Member States, except for Spain, a majority of the population opposes further enlargement, while in the post-communist Member States — except for the Czech Republic and Slovakia — the majority supports enlargement.
Although there is still a gap between the attitudes of elites and public opinion, the position of Member State governments towards further enlargements has become more openly hostile, partly in response to public opinion. On Saturday, the leaders of all 25 EU countries will gather for a largely ceremonial summit in Dublin. The Republic of Ireland holds the six-month rotating EU presidency. On the eve of the celebrations, Prodi declared that the divisions of the Cold War had been removed once and for all.
I urge all Europeans to join in celebrations of this astonishing achievement. Greece followed in , and Portugal and Spain in Austria, Sweden and Finland made in 15 in The enlargement crowns efforts by Poland and Germany to overcome the past. They are the largest old and new members of the EU, with about 80 million and 40 million citizens, respectively. Gallery: Celebrating EU expansion. Manage alerts What is this? Reuters contributed to this report.
The EU foreign ministers agreed that the candidates will participate as full members of the IGC, despite not being formal members of the bloc for another year, according to the officials. The Nice Treaty laid out essential reforms to prevent EU decision-making being paralysed by its new, bigger membership.
Under the treaty, the EU's executive Commission is meant to have only one representative of each country. The foreign ministers agreed that from May to November , the Commission will increase by 10 to 30 members, adding one commissioner for each of the new member states. From November, it will go down to 25 members, one for each country. The present commission led by Mr Romano Prodi has 20 members, two each from the bigger powers Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain and one each from the rest.
Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription. The candidates will enjoy a financial spin-off from the four-month delay in their accession. Latvians comprise 0. Its capital is Riga and the official language is Latvian. Latvia holds 8 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time in Latvia is a member country of the Schengen Area since December 21, Lithuanians comprise 0.
Its capital is Vilnius and the official language is Lithuanian. Lithuania holds 11 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU once in Lithuania is a member country of the Schengen Area since December 21, Luxembourgers comprise 0. Its capital is Luxembourg and the official languages in Luxembourg are French and German. Luxembourg holds 6 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU 12 times between and Luxembourg is a member country of the Schengen Area since March 26, The Maltese comprise 0.
Its capital is Valletta and the official language is Maltese. Malta holds 6 seats in the European Parliament and will hold the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time in Malta is a member country of the Schengen Area since December 21, The Dutch comprise 3. Its capital is Amsterdam and the official language is Dutch.
The Netherlands holds 26 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU 12 times between and The Netherlands is a member country of the Schengen Area since March 26, The Polish comprise 7. Its capital is Warsaw and the official language is Polish.
Poland holds 51 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU once in Poland is a member country of the Schengen Area since December 21, Its capital is Lisbon and the official language is Portuguese. Portugal holds 21 seats in the European Parliament and held the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU 3 times between and Portugal is a member country of the Schengen Area since March 26, The Romanians comprise 3.
Its capital is Bucharest and the official language is Romanian. Romania holds 32 seats in the European Parliament and will hold the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time in Romania is not a member country of the Schengen Area. Slovaks comprise 2. Its capital is Bratislava and the official language is Slovak. The political system in Slovakia is a parliamentary republic. Slovakia holds 13 seats in the European Parliament and is currently holding the revolving presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time.
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