At the first Assessing Accession Symposium in 2008 several papers were presented with a focus on legal or judicial matters. These papers discussed either the preparedness of new EU member states to implement EC/EU law and the efficiency of this implementation, or structural and institutional impact of the inclusion of new member states into the judicial system of the European Union. Assessing Accession was launched with the intention to bring together academics with wide range of research interests in the broad area of Central and Eastern Europe in the EU. At the same time, Assessing Accession has always encouraged creation of specific research streams within this broad context, which were initially set to include:
· CEECs within EU institutional structures
· CEECs and the EU policy making process
· The impact of the EU on CEECs in terms of policy implementation
· The impact of the EU on CEECs in terms of Europeanisation or democratic consolidation
· An analysis of ‘mechanisms of development’
Since the establishment of the Assessing Accession Collaborative Research Network, the legal perspective of CEECs’ membership in the EU has been present within the above mentioned streams. However, in 2009 Assessing Accession took a step towards forming a permanent study group within the network with a legal focus by organising a workshop entitled ‘Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union Court System’. This event brought together researchers from all over Europe to specifically discuss legal aspects of CEECs’ EU membership and set initial areas of interest for the forming study group.
The aim of the study group is to investigate the adaptation of CEECs to their membership of the European Union court system, application of EU law throughout CEECs and its impact on national legal systems, but also the impact the CEECs have had so far on the ECJ, the EU court system and EU law in general. The list of topics is open and we welcome mutli-disciplinary approaches to these topics. The permanent study group also provides a platform for scholars with interest in legal aspects of the CEECs’ EU membership to exchange information about events and projects and encourages cross national collaboration in this field.
In 2010, the Accessing Accession legal stream plans the following activities:
June
Fifth Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, 24-26 June 2010, Porto, Portugal
Organised by the ECPR Standing Group on the European Union
· Panel 470: Assessing Accession - Central and East European Judiciaries and EU Law
· Panel 471: Assessing Accession - Central and East European States versus the EU Courts
September
Exchanging Ideas on Europe: Europe at Crossroads, 6-8 September 2010, Bruges, Belgium
UACES Conference
· Panel B905: EU Enlargement and National Judiciaries in Central and East European Countries
For more information about this permanent study group, to have your event advertised on this website or if you are interested in hosting/organising one of the study group’s events in the future, please contact Martin Mik. To become an Assessing Accession member, please click here. To join the Assessing Accession Mailing List, please click here.