Rješenje je – proširenje! Prilog debatama o budućnosti EU i procesa proširenja

The theory of EU integrations has neglected importance of one of the main processes within the EU – the enlargement. Although it is common to relate the issue of enlargement with the Central and East Europe, and nowadays with Western Balkans, the EU took many more rounds of enlargement over years. The two crucial aspects of European integration, deepening and enlarging, have been taking place simultaneously. EU has taken steps towards closer integration at the same time as it enlarged. The latest expansion that took place in 2007 drove EU very close to decision to put further rounds of enlargement on hold. The rhetoric which is full of “enlargement fatigue” and “absorption capacity” sends a clear message that EU feels like giving up its role in democratization, political stabilization, economic liberalization, peace-building and rule of law in Western Balkans and all other aspirants. Moreover, the 2007 enlargement round for the first time in the EU history was not accompanied by its further deepening. Enlargement process has been establishing and elaborating the applicants’ European dimension, on one side. On the other, it helped construct common EU self-understanding as a new and genuinely different form of collective political identity. Contrary to what is generally assumed about the Western Balkans enlargement, the challenges EU is facing in that particular region are not new or unknown. The findings of this paper argue it is more correct to interpret this round of enlargement as another (re)defining moment in the evolution of its self-understanding, yet more substantial than the Lisbon Treaty.