Publication

European Union Enlargement and Integration Capacity

This special issue of the Journal of European Policy presents results from the research on the European Union Enlargement and its Integration Capacity. The Journal of European Public Policy is one of the leading journals in this field.

Author

Guest editors: Tanja A. Börzel, Antoaneta Dimitrova, and Frank Schimmelfennig

Date

07 February 2017

Links

Journal of European Public Policy: Special Issue

'European Union enlargement and integration capacity: concepts, findings, and policy implications'

‘What do citizens want? And why does it matter? Discourses among citizens as opportunities and constraints for EU enlargement’

'The Impact of Eastern enlargement on the decision making capacity of the European Union'

The Journal of European Public Policy is a high impact journal, ranking 21st out of 161 in Political Science and 7th out of 46 in Public Administration with an Impact Factor of 1.817. Its Five-Year Impact Factor of 2.079 ranks it as 26/161 in Political Science and 6/46 in Public Administration.  Only one Special Issue is released per year and the issue has been competitively selected.

This special issue is co-edited by Antoaneta Dimitrova and features three articles written by Antoaneta Dimitrova, Elitsa Kortenska and Dimiter Toshkov, researchers of the Institute of Public Adminstration:

- Prof. dr. Tanja A. Börzel, Dr. Antoaneta Dimitrova and Prof. dr. Frank Schimmelfennig, ‘ European Union enlargement and integration capacity: concepts, findings, and policy implications.’

The introductory article discusses the broader implications of the MAXCAP project findings assessing the EU’s eastern enlargement and the difficulties for future enlargements due to the politicization of the EU’s external governance.

- Dr. Antoaneta Dimitrova and Ms. Elitsa Kortenska,  'What do citizens want: And why does it matter? Discourses among citizens as opportunities and constraints for EU enlargement.'

This article presents findings on citizens discourses and perceptions of the past enlargement in four members states: two old (Germany, the Netherlands) and two new ones (Poland, Bulgaria). The findings suggest that people’s perceptions of enlargement and attitudes are more nuanced than being for or against it: for example, in the Netherlands, there is a little known positive discourse linking enlargement with shared EU values.

- Dr. Dimiter Toshkov: ‘The impact of the Eastern enlargement on the decision-making capacity of the European Union.’

This article employs several inventive analyses to show that the EU’s legislative output has not been slowed down by enlargement. The findings are counterintuitive, given that many have claimed that the Easter enlargement slowed down EU decision making.