Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the New Member States of the European Union But Were Afraid to Ask: The State of the Art

This paper analyses how the 2004 and 2007 eastern enlargement has impacted the European Union and its day-to-day functioning. Existing literature on the new member states of the EU and their activity as well as behaviour within the European community is examined. The accession process of Central and Eastern European countries to the EU during the 1990s and at the beginning of the 2000s was closely monitored by the academic literature that has analysed this process and its peculiarities (especially the effect of conditionality). However, the complexity of the new members’ engagement within the EU after their accession makes it especially difficult to evaluate their activities within the community and built upon the existing scholarship that is characterised by fragmentation. The two-fold aim of this review paper is thus to analyse literature on the enlarged EU and by its critical examination contribute to our understanding of the consequences of the eastern enlargement on the functioning of the EU. The paper studies activities and behaviour of the newcomers and focuses on, among other issues, their influence on the decision-making process and common policies, compliance to the community rules and Europeanization. The main conclusion of the paper is that even after twelve years since eastern enlargement the differences between the newcomers and the original member states are still visible (for example, there is a difference in compliance with EU laws and the newcomers differentiate in their activity and preferences) and therefore we can distinguish between these two groups of EU member states.