Understanding Enlargement: discourses in six countries
Journal: Archive of European Integration (AEI) (University of Pittsburgh)
Year: 2015

Introduction: Enlargement of the European Union involves a process of asymmetric intergovernmental negotiations, in which the candidate state negotiates how and when it would adopt the rules of the Union (Avery/Cameron, 1998: 31-33). Accession negotiations have been part of the EU’s development since its inception and especially in the last three decades have been almost a continuous process: the fifth enlargement of the EU took place between 1998, when the first seven of the group of twelve can