The big Balkan EU dream had already started to lose some of its luster long before Brussels reaffirmed last week that while "the future of the Western Balkans lies in the European Union," such a future may be very distant indeed. [...]
But where does this leave the EU's fabled leverage to institute change in prospective member states? If people in the Balkans now realize that the EU will not automatically make them rich and if their governments see that the sky repeatedly fails to fall when they experience problems in their relations with Brussels, shouldn't we expect the region to become less willing to reform?

[...] Deutschland hat sich in diesem Zusammenhang vor allem vorgenommen, den Bürgern das europäische Projekt und künftige Aufgaben auf verständliche Weise zu erklären. Den Höhepunkt soll die Berliner Erklärung bilden, die anlässlich der 50-Jahr-Feier der Römischen Verträge am 25. März 2007 verabschiedet werden wird. Gemeinsam mit den anderen Mitgliedstaaten will der deutsche Ratsvorsitz einen „Fahrplan" und die breiten Inhalte des Verfassungstextes nachzeichnen. Beides soll auf dem EU-Gipfel im Juni 2007 vorgestellt werden.
Ziel ist es, dass alle Mitgliedstaaten vor den nächsten Wahlen zum Europaparlament und der Benennung der neuen Kommission im Jahr 2009 den Verfassungsvertrag ratifiziert haben sollen. [...]

[...] Everyone is counting on success, whether on the EU constitution at home, or on resolving the problems over Turkey, the Balkans, Russia, the Middle East and Africa, abroad. Berlin is supposed to remove the internal blockages from the union's decision-making machinery and provide decisive, rapid and cohesive action to resolve all these issues. [...]
Yet these are not the sort of problems that can be resolved by instant leadership of six months. Hardly do we learn to spell the name of Mr Erkki Tuomioja, the Finnish foreign minister, before Mr Steinmeier replaces him.  [...]

European Commission vice-president Guenter Verheugen has questioned the need for small EU countries to have their own member of the European Commission, as part of far-reaching proposals to reform the EU executive. [...]
Under Mr Verheugen's plans, the president of the commission should be elected by the European Parliament - instead of being picked by national governments - and he or she should thereafter appoint his or her own commissioners (in the constitution this is still a matter for national capitals.)

Illustratives Beispiel dafür, wie die Kommission versucht, sachlich-inhaltliche Herausforderungen dazu zu nutzen, um auf supranationale Lösungen zu dringen.

Contents
Introduction: an alternative approach to traditional perspectives of EU-Turkish relations; Conceptualizing the EU's enlargement policy: motivations, conditions and instruments for EU's enlargement policy; The EU-Turkey association: a flawed instrument?; Economic instruments of the EU's policy for Turkey in a comparative perspective with the CEECs; The political aspects of the EU's policy towards Turkey in the context of a new European political order; The Greek factor: the ultimate obstacle to Turkish membership?; Security aspects of the EU's relations with Turkey; Containment policy reconsidered: preparing the ground for membership in the long run?; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

This book is an authoritative account of Poland's emerging foreign and security policies and will contribute to an understanding of the foreign policy preferences of an enlarged EU. Evaluation of Poland as by far the largest and most vocal of all the countries joining the EU Exploration of Poland's strong support for US policy over Iraq, its military potential, its proven capacity to use armed force and its de facto role as a regional leader Argues that Poland will have a defining influence not only on the nature of transatlantic relations, but also on the EU's emerging international identity