EU ENLARGEMENT FROM FIFTEEN TO TWENTY-FIVE: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

The accession of ten candidate countries to the EU in May 2004
marks an important turning point in its history. To ensure a smooth course of this process a clear insight into the problems involved and issues at stake is needed. These can be classifi ed into two main groups. The first is the problem of “deepening” the process of integration in the Union, which in the first place means a viable process of decisionmaking and an expedient implementation of respective policies. The second is related with the challenges that the economic and monetary union is facing because of the new constellation of interests created by the accession of
the newcomer countries. Conclusions follow.