Balkan Academic Book Review 15/2000
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Jozef M. van Brabant (ed), Remaking Europe: The European Union and the
Transition Economies. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Oxford: Rowman and
Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1999. 269+xix pp., ISBN 0-8476-9323-6.

Reviewed by David Phinnemore (Lecturer in European Integration Institute of
European Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast) . Email:
D.Phinnemore@...
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In this welcome addition to the literature, van Brabant brings together
leading academic economists to discuss various of the challenges, realities
and policy options facing the transition economies (TEs) of Central and
Eastern Europe and the European Union (EU) with regard to the latter's
eastern enlargement. The twin objectives of the volume are to clarify first
'the most important reasons behind the contrasts between the EU's reality
and the TE's disappointment' regarding enlargement, and second 'the
complexity of accession negotiations … in a realistic and objective
manner'. Both objectives are achieved with each of the contributions
providing valuable discussions of issues pertinent to the progress of the
enlargement process.
Van Brabant's introduction emphasises the 'thorny' nature of the EU's
embrace of the TEs and sets the tone for the volume by emphasising the
undue expectations which the TEs had in perceiving their 'return to Europe'
through rapid EU membership. In his next chapter, van Brabant underlines
the importance of the EU's own deepening process for successful
enlargement, reminding readers that changes in the TEs may have altered the
purview of the EU's integration ambitions, but have failed to compromise
the rationale behind European integration. A discussion of the background
to and the impact on integration of the Treaty on European Union (1992)
serves to reinforce this as well as draw welcome attention to the
complexities of integration which the EU must face when pursuing major
reform, including enlargement. The latter provides a focus for van
Brabant's third chapter in which he discusses the failures of the EU to
prepare itself for enlargement when concluding the Treaty of Amsterdam
(1997) and rightly draws attention to the significance of these as
reflecting deep-seated differences among the EU's member states on
enlargement and the fundamentals of integration per se.
The concern which van Brabant shows for the dynamics of the progress of EU
enlargement is shared by Lavigne in her discussion of the 'fluid and fuzzy'
conditions laid down for entry. These appear numerous and often
ill-defined, ranging from the formal to the merely tacit. Hence,
considerable latitude exists when interpreting them. The logical yet
occasionally overlooked conclusion is that states will be deemed to have
met the conditions only when the political will of the EU to expand its
membership exists. The EU's internal agenda thus determines the timing of
enlargements.
Implicit in the conclusions drawn by both Lavigne and van Brabant is that
the EU enlargement will be a long drawn-out process. From Orlowski's
perspective, this may well be welcome since the pressure on TE's to adopt a
monetary policy based on the stability of the national currency in terms of
the euro, particularly once they become members, will arguably jeopardize
monetary credibility, undermine the strength of domestic financial markets
and delay the structural adjustments necessary for integration into the EU.
Rather then rapid membership of the euro - a goal which the current Polish
government seeks within three years of entering the EU - TE's should remain
in ERM II for as long as possible.
Such a policy option would appear to exist for the TEs since the EMU
convergence criteria will not formally play a role in the accession
negotiations. All the same, as Andreff points out, the TE-5 (Hungary,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia) which opened accession
negotiations in 1998 perform reasonably well compared to EU member states.
The same cannot be said for the likes of Bulgaria and Romania. The same is
true when real economic convergence in general is examined. Such is needed,
however, if EU budgetary transfers to TEs states once members are to be
kept to a minimum. Here, Andreff notes encouraging signs of real economic
convergence as well as convergence in terms of TEs' institutional set-ups.
Major catch-up is still needed though, a view shared by Welfens whose
discussion of the distributional conflicts over EU structural funds and the
asymmetrical benefits for existing member states draws further attention to
the difficulties and options the EU has in promoting internal consensus on
how enlargement can proceed. He rightly argues that the problems the EU
faces are likely to become even more acute when contemplating enlargement
beyond the initial TE-5.
How to ensure structural convergence provides the focus of the chapter by
Gabrish and Werner who advocate greater state activism within the TEs to
spur structural change. Also proposed are a series of derogations from the
EU acquis concerning state aid and sectoral structural policies. Whether
the EU's negotiators will be willing to concede such is questionable given
the precedents they will set and the extent to which they depart from the
'level-playing field' and market liberalisation principles which underpin
the internal market.
Once criticism of the volume is that despite its purported consideration of
twenty-seven TEs, most analyses focus on the TE-5. Welfens does make a
brief case for a free trade area between an enlarged EU and Russia, but it
is left to van Brabant's own fourth contribution to discuss the
implications of enlargement for the EU's other European and indeed
non-European partners. Whether though, as suggested, the EU will proceed
with a 'thorough reconceptualization' of its preferential trade agreements
and a 'coherent revamping' of the its external architecture, remains to be
seen.
By way of final comment, what is most welcome in the volume is the
pragmatic and realistic consideration it gives to the challenges faced by
the EU in admitting new members and by the TEs in meeting accession
criteria. Some readers may not embrace what can easily be interpreted as a
downbeat and pessimistic assessment of where the process of EU enlargement
might be heading. The volume provides salutary insights, however, into an
array of issues which will influence the achievement of a substantially
enlarged EU so prominent in the prevailing rhetoric surrounding the process
of European integration.
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Book available at: http://www.RowmanLittlefield.com/
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© 2000 Balkan Academic News.

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