EU as an External Player in Domestic Policy Processes in Candidate Countries.

EU-membership is tightly conditioned, leaving little room for real negotiations between the applicant states and the EU. The EU is not passively waiting for applicants to adapt to the membership criteria, however. On the contrary they are actively taking part in the adoption process, giving financial and administrative assistance and policy recommendations on the basis of the annual opinions of the progress made. The aim of the paper is to study the role of the EU in the domestic policy processes in the former and current applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe.The overarching question to be answered is thus: In what way, to what extent and with what consequences does the EU interfere in the domestic policy processes in applicant countries?The second part aims at analysing the effects of the pattern discovered in part one and what lessons EU should learn from the last and current enlargement processes, when starting negotiations with new countries. The specific questions related to section two are thus: What are the consequences of the EU interference in terms of sovereignty, democracy and accountability, popular trust and support for the domestic political institutions in the candidate countries? How should EU deal with these issues in future enlargement processes? ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]