assessing accession

 

Glasgow University hosted the first Assessing Accession Research Symposium on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th June 2008.

The symposium was attended by 21 scholars from across Europe and North America, all of whom are working on various aspects EU eastern enlargement evaluation.

12 papers were presented across 2 roundtable workshops designed to address the question of whether the new member states have fully integrated themselves into the EU or are they still 'silent partners' unable to make themselves heard over the old guard. The roundtables were themed to reflect this question in terms of the impact of the 2004 and 2007 accessions on institutional and policy development within the EU. Papers were presented on a range of issues including the European Parliament, Commission and European Court of Justice, as well as the European Neighbourhood Policy and Development Policy. Issues such as civil society and asymmetric membership were also debated. For a full list of papers please click HERE.

Assessing Accession was particularly pleased to welcome Professor Geoffrey Pridham, Professor of European Politics at the University of Bristol. Professor Pridham gave the keynote address to a expanded audience of about 35 individuals. The address which was entitled "The Arrival of Enlargement Studies: Patterns and Problems" provided a comprehensive review of not only the literature on "EU eastern enlargement", but also questioned whether it is valid to even refer to "Enlargement Studies". This encouraged a lively debate about whether enlargement needs to be defined within its own sub-discipline or whether it is best to address it as part of a wider European Studies or even political science discipline. While no definitive answers were agreed, what did become clear from Professor Pridham's address and from the papers and debate throughout the day was that enlargement can and should be observed within a multi-disciplinary framework (political science, cultural/sociological, legal and economic). Furthermore, enlargement raises many questions and its relevance to the EU did not stop with the accession of the new members on the 1st May 2004 and 1st January 2007. As Professor Pridham noted, citing Frank Schimmelfenning and Ulrich Sedelmeier (2002),

 

As for the question - 'are the new member states silent partners?' - there appears some evidence that for some states (depending on size, behavious and time) much is still to be done in order for them to make an impact, but for others it is clear that they are in every way acting as full members and are anything but silent. Of course it is still early days and there is a undoubted need, as one of the participants noted in their paper, for more concrete empirical research to be carried out. This is something which Assessing Accession aims to encourage and as such it was agreed that a 2nd symposium would be held during 2009 on the theme Central & Eastern Europe in the EU: Power and Representation.

A full report on the symposium, including details of the discussions that took place during the Saturday morning 'sandpit' session will shortly be available to download from the secure online workspace of the Assessing Accession Online Research Community. For details on how to join the Online Research Community or the Study Network please click HERE. Details of the 2nd Annual Assessing Accession Research Symposium will also be made available shortly.

Some of the papers from the Symposium, including Professor Pridham's Keynote Address will be available for download from this site as CRCEES Working Papers in due course.