Who Are the Real Europeans?
East Central Europe and the EU Crisis
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
For the new members of the European Union, the looming failure of the EU constitution ratification process and the EU’s current crisis mean both a caesura and a new challenge. Decision makers in Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest feel that also sense that things cannot go back to the way they were. The debate on Europe is not just about who is for and against the constitutional treaty, but about the future shape of the EU. Will there be addition-al rounds of enlargement? Which integrating steps are preconditions for further enlargement? And who will be the future motor of integration? There is much to suggest that East Central Europe will serve as a centre of European reform in the future.
(Osteuropa 7/2005, pp. 103–116)