This title was first published in 2003. This work intends to make an important and interesting contribution to the wider debate on European regional development. It looks beyond the confines of the EU proper and combines interesting and relevant case studies from a broader pan-European perspective. Also, the approaches adopted are informed by a variety of theoretical positions. By addressing the changing roles of SMEs in different regions of Eastern Europe, readers should gain insights into the different dimensions of SME development and the link between SMEs and regional growth.

The 2004 and 2007 enlargements pushed the EU's external border further east as well as closer to unstable areas in the western Balkans. With future enlargements unlikely in the short-term, the EU faces new challenges in securing stable relationships with these neighbouring countries, while not fostering false hopes of early accession.

This volume serves as a prism through which the European Union's external relations and security can be assessed. Experts tackle strategic issues such as Russia's relationship with the West, the rise of China (with special reference to arms supplies), Iran"s nuclear program, and European homeland security against the background of global terrorism. On these issues and others, transatlantic relations continue to be more relevant than ever, with the United States and the EU intertwined in the world's tightest network of economic and societal relations. As the enlarging EU stretches to cover an expanding area of competence, its responses to these challenges affect not only its internal security but increasingly that of its neighbors and other powerful actors on the world stage.

This book explores the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbours. Based on extensive original research – including surveys, focus-groups, a study of school essays and in-depth interviews with key people in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia and in Brussels – it assesses why the EU’s initiatives have received limited legitimacy in the neighbourhood. The European Neighbourhood Policy of 2004, and the subsequent Eastern Partnership of 2009 heralded a new form of relations with the EU’s neighbours – partnership based on joint ownership and shared values – which would complement if not entirely replace the EU’s traditional governance framework used for enlargement. These initiatives have, however, received a mixed response from the EU’s eastern neighbours. The book shows how the key elements of partnership have been forged mainly by the EU, rather than jointly, and examines the idea and application of external governance, and how this has been over-prescriptive and confusing.

The thirteen ASEAN+3 countries are inching forward toward closer economic cooperation. Can the European Union serve as a model for this Asian interregional integration process? Although there are common cultural threads running through all ASEAN+3 countries, these countries have not so far envisaged themselves forming a political and supra-national legal community similar to the EU. Nevertheless, the EU as innovator and forerunner offers Asia an unparalleled road map to further regional integration. Where are the boundaries of the European Model? What form will Asian economic cooperation take? Asian and European scholars discussed these and other pressing questions on the invitation of the EU-China European Studies Centres Programme (ESCP) at a conference entitled «The EU's Experience in Integration - A Model for ASEAN+3?» held in Shanghai in January 2006. Their findings are presented in this collection of fifteen papers on politics, economics and history of the two regions.

This volume studies the relevance of European integration for conflict settlement and conflict resolution in divided states such as Cyprus or Serbia and Montenegro.