By analyzing contemporary research findings in European politics, the aim of the paper is to evaluate the conflict that the EU’s enlargement policy has created between: a) the complexity of the process and b) the disproportionately loose political framework at EU level. In other words, there is growing concern whether EU enlargement can proceed given the insufficient level of integration amongst existing members. Integration in the latter sense places also emphasis on its political, social and cultural aspects and not simply the economic. The second related issue addressed in the paper is the pre-existing democratic deficit in the decision making process in Brussels that has been the other major source of opposition to the EU’s constitutional treaty in 2007. The way this issue relates to the enlargement process stems from the implication that the latter would impose additional difficulties for the creation of a European society of citizens coupled with a European public space and finally a common European political culture. All together constitute operational pre-requisites for the convergence of the complex socio-economic and political processes that are in store. The final research question approaches the issue of whether the globalisation process, with its requirements for fast modernization and consequences for income redistribution, has rendered the overriding European goal for economic and monetary union insufficient, by raising the risks for the EU being turned simply into a common market that could face disintegration risks from the contradictory forces of globalisation in the future. If that is the case, then the broader aspects of political and social integration and the need to exert stronger global influence in the cultural and external policy arenas are likely to gain in significance and push towards further alignment between internal and external policies.
