Project title: The European Union and its Direct Neighbourhood beyond Enlargement

(OTKA No.: F 038 289)

The research focuses on three big topics:

• The strategic choices of the European Union (EU) to formulate its future system of international political and economic relations. Regarding both the economic and the political field, the effects of the widening and the deepening of integration have to be taken into account. In our analysis, we put particular weight (beyond the most important international economic and political relations) on the discussion of the relations of the EU with its neighbourhood.
• Discussing economic and political relations, traditions, present and future priorities of the EU with Central and Eastern Europe, we put particular weight on the effects of the prospects of the eastward enlargement of the Union. Those Central and Eastern European countries, which will not join the EU in the foreseeable future (and some of which mean a considerable challenge for the security policy of the EU), are especially important from this point of view.
• The Mediterranean area (the countries of the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean see) are and will be increasingly important for the EU both from economic and security aspects. The strategy to be followed by the EU here should be able to handle the heterogeneity of the area, should harmonise with the general economic and political priorities of the EU, and should take into account the (not always positive) traditions of the relations.

The objective of the research is to formulate a strategy – on the basis of the ideas of the EU concerning its future economic and political role – for the desirable development of the common future of the EU and its direct neighbourhood (the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and of the southern and eastern coasts of the Mediterranean sea).

The high complexity of the actual challenges, which the European integration has to face, gives special importance to the topic of the research. Our objective is to elaborate a coherent strategy for the development of the structure of external relations of the EU in general and for the relations with the mentioned neighbouring areas in particular, based on economic interest and potential political intentions. This strategy should serve best the interests of both the EU and its direct neighbourhood.

Beyond daily problems, we want to get answers to those questions, which will be decisive for the long-term development of the relations between the enlarged EU and its direct neighbourhood. The quality of these relations will also be decisive for the future role of the EU (facing at the same time basic internal challenges) in world politics and in the world economy.

Duration of the project: 2002–2005.

Project leader: Tamás Szemlér Ph.D., senior research fellow, Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. E-mail: tszemler@vki.hu