The book provides the first comprehensive comparative analysis of the development of EU enlargement conditionality across four different enlargement waves - the first (2004) and the second (2007) phase of the Eastern enlargement, the EU enlargement to Croatia (2013), and the ongoing enlargement round involving Turkey and the Western Balkans.

Several decades ago, leaders of six European countries with an inclusive vision of Europe and strong courage started a construction without precedent, the European Union. The remarkable construction evolved not only concerning the number of the Member States, but also in terms of institutional and functional development. Nowadays, the European Union is one of the most important changing factor concerning the governance and the policy-making process at European level and not only, and there is no doubt that the EU will continue to grow as an increasing number of countries express interest in membership.This paper reveals in a comparative perspective the path to European Union Accession, and is based on documentary analysis, using strategy-level documents of the countries and the Progress Reports the European Commission provided during the past enlargement.

One of the most significant decisions of the EU, after the Maastricht Treaty, was its enlargement decision to accept new members as they fulfill the economic and political criteria. As a result of enlargement decision, in May 2004 10 new members, mostly East European countries, and in January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union. Enlargement is still a working policy process for the EU, in which accession negotiations with formal candidate countries (Turkey and Croatia) are still proceeding and further expansion to the Western Balkans are being considered as a possibility. Despite its success, the EU enlargement has not been free from skepticism. Among several other reasons opposition to Turkey's EU membership played an important role to explain the skepticism toward the EU enlargement. Especially after the latest round of enlargement process Turkey's accession negotiation became a critical topic for the future of Europe. In this framework, this study attempts to understand the dynamics of sociopolitical structure of the European opposition to Turkish EU membership. Recent literature indicates four major issues and concerns regarding the Turkey's EU membership; identity related concerns, general concerns about future enlargement, individual economic expectations, and the concerns about immigration and crime. The first phase of this study considers each issue area as a separate topic and measure the effect of Turkey related variables independently. The second phase measure the level of opposition to Turkey's membership using all issue areas and other explanatory variables in a single model.

This book provides a wide range of in-depth historical and theoretical analyses of the Bulgarian and Romanian accessions to the European Union. It also assesses the implications of the 2007 round for future enlargements of the European Union. This book was published as a special issue of Perspectives on European Politics and Socie

This open access book explores the new complexities and ambiguities that epitomize EU-Turkey relations. With a strong focus on the developments in the last decade, the book provides full access to a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted relationship through three entry points: (1) Theories and Concepts, (2) Institutions, and (3) Policies. Part I brings together complementary and competing analytical approaches to study the evolution of EU-Turkey relations, ranging from traditional integration theories to novel concepts. Part II investigates the institutional machinery of EU-Turkey relations by analyzing the roles and perspectives of the European Council, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. Part III offers analyses of the policies most relevant for the relationship: enlargement policy, trade and macroeconomic policies, foreign and security policy, migration and asylum policies, and energy policy. In Part IV, the volume closes with a systematic survey of the conditions under which cooperative trends in EU-Turkey relations could be (re)invigorated. The systematic setup and the balanced combination of distinguished experts from EU- and Turkey-based institutions make this book a fundamental reading for students, researchers, lecturers, and practitioners of EU-Turkey relations, European integration and Turkish foreign policy. Wulf Reiners is Senior Researcher and Head of the Managing Global Governance (MGG) Program of the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut fur Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). Ebru Turhan is Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations, Turkish-German University in Istanbul, Turkey.