Volume 12, Issue 1
Title:
From New to Indispensable? How Has the 2004 “Big Bang” Enlargement Reshaped EU’s Power Balance
Editor(s):
Marko Lovec (University of Ljubljana) and Matej Navratil (Slovak Academy of Sciences / Comenius University)
Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 March 2023
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 July 2023
Publication of the Issue: January/March 2024
Information:
2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of the European Union’s “Big Bang” enlargement. EU’s conditionality not only amplified the ongoing “triple transition” in EU member states but was also instrumental in facilitating countries’ embeddedness into the West. However, assumptions of the EU’s transformative power on new members after accession are rather ambiguous, ensuing both from EU’s inability to enforce the rules once a candidate country becomes a member and from the fact that countries were preparing to join an entirely different Union—one that was, at the time, unmarked by economic and migration crisis, security threats, or centrifugal forces resulting in disintegration. As a response to external and internal shocks, Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have also participated in redesigning dysfunctional EU policies: This thematic issue challenges us to consider how.
We invite up-to-date research that revolves around the following questions:
How have CEE new member states, as passive actors, changed the EU? What were their degree of institutional quality and policy capacity to adapt to the EU? In turn, what was the level of absorptive capacity of EU institutions and their most prominent challenges (e.g., the creation of efficient decision-making mechanisms, democratic backsliding) in incorporating these new member states?
How have CEE new member states, as active players, changed the EU? How have they used EU institutions to advance their own interests?
Should global crises and EU dysfunctionalities be understood as intervening variables in the positive adaptation of new member states? How is global change a challenge to the EU?
To what extent, if any, are new member states responsible for institutional inertia/institutional vibrancy in EU’s approach to endogenous and exogenous shocks (e.g., (de)democratization, resurgence of identity politics, ontological security, security threats, spread of extremism, etc.).
We encourage scholars and researchers to address why and under what circumstances are countries willing to proceed with the integration of “core state powers” and what are the repercussions of these dynamics for the EU’s institutional set-up, as characterized by differentiation.
Instructions for Authors:
Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Politics and Governance is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).
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