Economic, Institutional and Security-Related Consequences of the Eastern Enlargement of the EU

The course of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union was set during the Essen Summit of the heads of governments in December 1994. Therefore, “only” the questions HOW and WHEN remain to be answered, a task which will occupy the EU institutions and the EU states as well as the Central and Eastern European states in the next decade. This important step for Europe’s future entails a series of consequences which must be discussed before the enlargement. In the following the economic, institutional and security- related consequences of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union can only be roughly sketched.