The EU Enlargement Towards the East. A European Security Issue
The EU Enlargement Towards the East. A European Security Issue

Summary/Abstract: The end of the Cold War has placed Europe at the cross-roads of the old East-West division which is no longer adequate and a new structure that is not yet fully functioning. The E.C. (European Community), was initially created to serve the pressing need of having a stable structure that could face the USSR. Nowadays the EU (European Union) reunites the countries of Western Europe in a strong economic and political alliance, but in the same time faces the challenge of enlargement towards the East. The inclusion of the former Warsaw Pact states, satellites of the USSR in the EU, is a decision hard to make and a virgin ground to step on, and raises in the seine time the question whether a new enlarged structure will represent a better guarantee to security and stability in Europe, or on the contrary it will constitute a threat to the stability of the existent EU. Such a problem cannot however be discussed without taking into account Russia, its priorities and its position regarding the potential future European enlargement towards the East. On the other hand EU enlargement seems to overlap, according to various authors with NATO enlargement, a subject which makes the approach to Russia even more delicate. The present paper discusses the EU enlargement towards the East and Russia's future role from the perspective of the 3C's security theory - common security, co-operative security and collective security.

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