Publication

This paper examines the required preconditions for potential member countries to join the EU and how those conditions determine the success of both the catching-up of developing European countries and the deepening of the integration process. The authors argue that the timing of EU enlargement should depend on institutional convergence between the EU and potential accession candidates. They look at institutional quality in the EU, the EU's neighboring Balkan and Black Sea regions, and especially at Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Turkey, and Ukraine - in 2005 the most likely countries to lobby for entry into the EU.