* I would like to thank to Asst. Prof. Semail Ulgen from University of Mississippi for her contributions, her ideas and assistance in this paper.

1. INTRODUCTION

Enlargement of EU, which directly affects the Europe's future, is on the agenda of Europe, It is expected that all countries involved in the process will benefit from this.  This enlargement period gathers the whole Europe in peace as a continent , and it will enlarge the borders of welfare by improving both the members and new member or  candidate countries. EU of 21 st century is a creation of a united Europe that is reflecting qualities such as peace, democracy, shared welfare and wealth. In this context enlargement of EU is important not only for the peace and welfare of the members and new members to be, but for the all countries in this world.

2. THE POSITIVE AFFECTS OF EU'S ENLARGEMENT PERIOD

      EU is like a constant evolving living organism. In 1950, EU was initiated by six countries; by 1 May 2004, ten new countries joined to the EU. Enlargement action of EU ended the historical division of Europe, and changed social, cultural, economical balance as well as the institutional structure of the EU. 

      EU values and its success attracted many countries of different economical and political backgrounds. These new members enriched and changed the quality of EU, its members, and new members. The European citizens has benefited by this organic growth of EU. This enlargement brought to the European companies big opportunities such as ecological protection, political rights, community service, which lead to the consideration of European norms in broader measures. In short, this organic growth enriched the Europe by the time. 

      As this enlargement is finalized, EU citizens will be able to live, travel, and work on a broader land. The companies will market their goods in the biggest and the endless market of the world. Behind this enlargement program, EU'S policies and practices are under developmental period. As this gathered countries decrease the potential conflicts, this enlargement also implies emphasizing the political stability and welfare for all EU citizens. The high living standards and enlarged Unique Market with adopted rules, bring opportunities to the countries outside of EU in terms of the exportation and the importation. That means that they are able to do business with this big Market under the unique trading rules, unique tariff, and uniquely administered procedures. This improves the investment and the business, and increases welfare. 

      This united Europe empowers the basic values of EU- Democracy, the Rule of Law,  Respect on Human Rights, Protection for Minorities,- and leads EU to take major part, in the bigger international political and economical arena which are affecting our world more and more each day, as a powerful influence. For that reason, the most important part of the enlargement program, is that to protect the European values and standards along the way.  As EU invites new countries to the union, EU insists that they have to abide the rules of respecting EU laws, practise, and satisfying all the basic requirements. In order not to damage the fundamental character of EU, the candidates which have already started the economical, political, and social reforms, are expected to adopt their own national laws and practise and make them compatible with the EU. 

      Since EU is very excited, hopeful, and decisive for the success of this enlargement program, EU expects the top quality for this enlargement. From the very beginning, namely right after the collapse of Berlin Wall, EU recognizes the depth of the new era in European history, and values this stage of Europe. Eliminating the importation quotas, presenting the variety of trade options, trade collaborations, signing agreements on business collaborations, EU has started new bonds with the middle and eastern European countries. Starting at the end of 1980's, EU has provided the specifically prepared EU programs, financial and technical specializations in order to empower the efforts of adopting and rebuilding the regional economies. In a very short time, EU became the biggest trade, help, and investment source and economical partner for these countries. Hence, EU ended up with a surplus trade.

3. THE NEGATIVE AFFECTS OF EU'S ENLARGEMENT PERIOD

      The enlargement period of several countries which are experiencing the life on different parts of Europe under different conditions, brings tough challenges along the way to be solved. The first few of these fundamental problems are as follows: Immigration, increase in crimes, increase in unemployment rate, the deprivation of ecological standards, agricultural damping, consumer protection issues, or potential risks of cultural identity. Next we explain these below.

      3.a. IMMIGRATION

      Immigration is a result of instability. EU brings the factor of increase in stability. EU membership will decrease the tendency of the large population movements instead of increasing it. Because of the differences in the distribution of wealth across Europe, some of the member countries created concerns on putting the social stability in danger by the cheap labor treating the current workers or suppressing the salaries or the demand on health and social services, or large amounts of immigration from new members, or even ethnic tensions. But a careful analysis shows that these concerns are exaggerated. The enlargement increases the welfare in the new member countries, this empowers the tendency to stay in the country for most of the people, and that way people searches this new opportunities in their own environment. Moreover, the most flowing population, namely young population workers have a very little difference in their salary as of today.

      3.b. ORGANIZED CRIMES

      One other thing that is scary for people about the enlargement of EU is that the increase in the organized crimes. However, the enlargement will not make drug trade, money laundry, arms smuggle, car theft, and terrorism easy. 

      On the contrary, new members have accepted the laws of EU to fight against these issues, and therefore, the enlargement will help with the improved police cautiousness, powerful support for the rule of law, developed crime control preventions spread across Europe. If the enlargement delays for some reason, the disappointed candidate countries will experience the increase in crime rates as a result of leading a life in cycles of low growth rate, low investment rate, insufficient foreign capital, and limited future expectations.

      3.c. UNEMPLOYMENT

      If the industrial institutions move to the middle and Eastern Europe where there is cheap labor, then the concern is that EU will experience an unemployment problem in large populations. However such a dramatic change is not expected: Western companies have already resided in these candidate countries for a long time. Last decade shows that the strong industrial and trade relations between candidate countries and EU countries did not lead to the unemployment. The investments in the area have been such investments which are beneficial by creating new markets. Maybe this leads to the most both political and economical opportunity for Europe. Instead of decreasing the economical activity in EU, this leads to the increase in trade, strong growth, and employment opportunities, helps to realize this potential to exist.

      3.d. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTAL LEVEL

      Pessimistic ones asserted that the enlargement will badly affect the disadvantageous regions in EU.  According to them the difference between the rich and poor regions will increase, and the fons EU uses for the undeveloped regions in EU, will be shifted to the new members. These regions will drop down to the levels of middle Europe. The experiences in the past shows that this scenario is not realistic: Each EU enlargement, does not matter whether the candidate country is poor or not, did not increase the regional imbalance, instead decreased it. Between 1950 and 1990, the inequality between EU countries, decreased by two thirds, and inequality between regions decreased by more than 50%. New members, did not slow down the growth of EU, instead, by the increase in trade and investment level support, EU achieved a growth of much over the EU average, and speeded up the economical growth. Successful and rich EU needs easy to reach, and growing markets and enlargement will bring that.

      3.e. AGRICULTURAL DAMPING

      The candidate countries have a strong agricultural sector. This power can be put in practise with western technical knowledge, fons and equipment. Hence, such a situation is not a treat, but opportunity for EU. The damping in the EU markets with the cheap labor in the agricultural sector in these countries is not a treat at all to be scared of. The EU agricultural sector benefitted from the great trade activity.  EU farmers increased their agricultural exports to new members starting from the beginning of 1990's because of the higher levels of support in subvention, more developed delivery items.

      3.f. ECOLOGICAL STANDARDS

      For ecological healing, investment is needed in candidate or new member countries; but on the contrary to the concerns discussed in EU these investments will not deprive other members for other purposes. The investments for the improvement of ecological standards are all helpful for the Europe. The actions in improving the standards will create new orders for the western producers and exporters. Enlargement, by different methods, enrich European ecology:  Moreover, candidate countries own lots of ecological sources that are important for EU.

4. CONCLUSION

      EU enlargement period is complicated and hard. However, it is also an opportunity that will extend the borders of peaceful, democratic and welfare EU, to outside of EU. It is possible to try to find reasons to delay the date for the enlargement program. But, at this point the real concern has to be, as a result of delayed or no enlargement program, the disappointed communities of these candidate countries and the instability in these countries may affect the EU negatively in the long run. As a result, the expectations in the future are high, opportunities are big, and EU is well-determined to provide to realize this potential enlargement to be helpful to the recent and future member countries.

SOURCES

europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement

http://www.abgs.gov.tr

http://www.belgenet.com/arsiv/ab/

http://www.canaktan.org

http:/www.deltur.cec.eu.int

http://ekutup.dpt.gov.tr/ab/kavalalim/genislem.pdf

http://www.eu-coordinator.gov.cy

http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/enlargement

Cengiz AKTAR, 2002, ‘Avrupa Birliğinin Genişleme Süreci’, İletişim Yayınları, Haziran, İstanbul.

Murat KAVALALI, 2005, ‘Avrupa Birliğinin Genişleme Süreci’, Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı Müsteşarlığı, (AB İle İlişkiler Genel Müdürlüğü), Ekim, Ankara. 

About the Author:

Oğuz YILDIRIM: Assistant Professor of Economics Department of Economics Biga Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University 17200 Biga - Çanakkale, TURKEY
+90 (286) 335 87 38-39-40 (Office) +90 (286) 335 87 36 (Fax)
E-mail: oguz1970@yahoo.com