Rethinking Conditionality: Theoretical Understandings of EU Conditionality in a Post-Enlargement Era

Abstract

Conditionality is one of the main conceptual tools to analyse EU Eastern enlargement. Numerous authors have assessed the degree, impact and variation of conditionality in different institutional, political and cultural settings. Literature also shows that even in similar settings, the EU conditionality and outcomes varied across the CEE region. The actual effect of the EU push mostly depended on the degree of domestic compliance, actor constellations and possible veto-players. This panel examines the multifaceted concept of conditionality in the post -enlargement era, by assessing its role in the Europeanization of new CEE EU member states; reviewing its transformation as an opportunity structure for domestic change vis-à-vis future enlargement; and examining its relevance in the post-enlargement era for formal/informal process continuation of reform efforts across the wider Europe. It also seeks to identify key factors affecting the success of conditionality, by assessing not only the quantity of conditionality but also its quality in the individual cases across the CEE region (as well as in a comparative perspective). Given the decade since the first CEE accession, this panel also considers the legacies of EU conditionality in CEE. Recent developments in Hungary and Romania (2012 - 2013) highlight how the Copenhagen Criteria remain critical concerns not only for the future enlargement agenda, but also vis-à-vis the existing EU member states. This panel thus also examines how EU conditionality and similar incentive structures need to adapt to sustain democratisation and prevent backsliding in prospective EU member states (such as the Western Balkans including most recently Serbia).