EU ENLARGEMENT: CURRENT EU CANDIDATES AND PROSPECTS FOR FUTURE ENLARGEMENT

Abstract

European Union (EU) since its foundation until today has proven that is a regional international organization in the above expansion, from 6 to 28 members and is still continuing to expand. Since the expansion is one of the important policies, and placed high on the agenda of EU activities, I think it is important that should be analyzed this problem with scientific attention for two main reasons: first, the expansion of the EU led to many European countries with a communist past to be transformed into democratic societies and free market economies; second, enlargement has improved respect for democracy, rule of law, stability and security across Europe. The purpose of this paper is to analyze enlargement process, conditionality, and “the Copenhagen criteria”, related to the EU enlargement. It will also describe the situation in the candidate countries for EU membership and potential candidates, their perspectives and political circumstances that hinder their EU membership. Finally, a survey was conducted with Macedonian citizens about their country's prospects in the EU accession process, where their beliefs are analyzed and conclusions are drawn on the possible expansion of the EU towards their country.