Past Accession Experience and Actual Challenges for the European Union Enlargement Process

The European integration process, launched by an initiative of Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950 and joined by six founding member states, certainly belongs to one of the most remarkable sui generis geopolitical projects, based on voluntary economic co-operation, in human history. This is still true, despite of numerous severe crises hitting the European Union after adoption of the Lisbon Treaty. The contemporary European Union of 27 Member States could not become a reality without several waves of gradual enlargement, based on Schuman’s profound open-minded vision to welcome new states of Europe that would wish and fulfil the criteria to join the European Community. The main aim of the paper is three-fold: (1) to outline main achievements of the past enlargement process, before and after May 2004; (2) to outline the main challenges for the European Union enlargement process; (3) to examine the attitudes of citizens of EU member states related to EU enlargement (valuation of EU membership of their own country of origin, as well as support for speeding up of the ongoing enlargement process). The research paper uses qualitative and quantitative secondary sources from supranational institutions (European Commission and other relevant institutions), alternatively also from the national administration, as well as a relevant professional expertise, both from the past accession negotiation process into the EU and from the European institutions.