This book is a study of EU conditionality and compliance during the enlargement to the Central and Eastern European candidate countries. EU conditionality for membership is widely understood as having been a driving force for Europeanization, providing incentives and sanctions for compliance or non-compliance with EU norms, such as the 'Copenhagen Criteria' and the adoption of the acquis communautaire . By taking regional policy and regionalization as a case study, this book provides a comparative analysis of the effects of conditionality on the Central and East European countries and explores the many paradoxes and weaknesses in the use of EU conditionality over time.

'well-structured and convincing book...at last, I have finally encountered a book that deals with the complexities of European Union conditionality without surrending to the easy depiction of the colonial-type pure power asymmetry which leaves no room for counteractions...this book constitutes one of the most in-depth and best documented studies on not only the standing criteria to comply with and the difficulties of implementation, but also the informal pressures (page 2) which offer a deeper understanding of enlargement process as a dynamic ineraction between institutional incentives and rules and domestic transition factors...the main interest lies in the dynamic research methods of the authors, largely based on a number of very valuable interviews with EU officials and the local and regional elites'. - Cristina Blanco Sio-Lopez - Environment and Planning

Autorentext
JAMES HUGHES is Reader in Comparative and East European Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He taught at the universities of Surrey, Trinity College Dublin, and Keele before joining the Department of Government at LSE in 1994. He was a Nuffield Social Science Fellow (1994-5) and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence (2001-02).

GWENDOLYN SASSE is Lecturer in East European Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. She taught at the Central European University before joining the European Institute at LSE in 1999. Since 2002 she is based both in the European Institute and in the Department of Government. Her PhD was awarded the LSE Robert McKenzie Prize.

CLAIRE GORDON is Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Inhalt
Introduction The Logic of Enlargement Conditionality and Europeanization Communist Legacies and Regionalization The Commission, Conditionality and Regional Policy Monitoring Conditionality and Compliance Transition, Enlargement and Regionalization: A Comparison of Hungary and Poland Elites and the Capacity for Europeanization Conclusion Bibliography Statistical Appendix