The EU New Member States as Agenda Setters in the Enlarged European Union

Project Manager: David Král

Timeframe: completed (September 2008 – December 2009)

Executive Summary:

The aim of this research project was to examine to what extent the new member states of the EU (that joined in 2004 and 2007 respectively) can participate as active players in the EU policy making. EUROPEUM was in charge of elaborating the research methodology and recruiting experts for five country reports (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland), three of which were elaborated by the in-house experts of EUROPEUM (Věra Řiháčková, Vladimír Bartovic, Urban Boljka).

The research has been carried out by individual researchers in each of the ten new members on the basis of specially designed methodology, developed by EUROPEUM and major input from EuPI/OSI-Sofia. The seven policy areas under research are:

I. Internal market/Lisbon Strategy;
II. Minority integration and citizenship issues;
III. Energy and climate change;
IV. Budget review and CAP Health Check;
V. EU foreign policy and enlargement;
VI. Freedom, Security and Justice;
VII. Institutional issues.

Outputs:

• Publication Not Your Grandfathers´Eastern Bloc
  
• Individual coutry reports for the 10 countries of Central and Eastern Europe - link.
  

The research was carried out primarily in the period September 2008 – December 2009, but there may be references beyond this period. Some positions and circumstances described in the reports may have changed since the information was last made available to the researchers or reached the stage of publication. The researchers’ findings are published in ten country reports on each of the New Member States: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The structure of the country reports includes an overview of the country’s performance as an EU member and seven chapters following the seven broad policy areas. Each chapter contains an overview of the position of this country in the area, including the top three national priorities. Then the chapters provide in-depth analyses, information and prognoses on a set of issues (defined as general and specific) within each of the seven policy areas.

A comparative report, based on the ten country reports, was produced to highlight the project’s findings. The views expressed in the reports are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Open Society Institute – Sofia.

Authors of the country reports

Partners: 

Open Society Foundation – Sofia (Bulgaria)

Donors:

Open Society Foundation – Sofia (Bulgaria)

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