Today I would like to present two publications to you, both dealing with interesting aspects of European Union enlargement. The contents of the first one – the book of Anneli Albi, EU Enlargement and the Constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe – is described in the author’s synopsis as follows:
“In the wake of the EU’s biggest enlargement, this book explores the adaptation of the constitutions of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) for membership in the European Union. In response to the painful past, these new constitutions were notably closed to transfer of powers to international organizations, and accorded a prominent status to sovereignty and independence. A little more than a decade later, the process of amending these provisions in view of the transfer of sovereign powers to a supranational organization has proved a sensitive and controversial exercise. This book analyses the amendments against the background of comparative experience and theory of sovereignty, as well as the context of political sensitivities, such as rising euroscepticism ahead of accession referendums.”
Additional information can be found on the Amazon.co.uk-Website, where you can also have a look inside the book (front cover, table of content, excerpt, index and back cover).
The second one, an article about “Media Effects on Public Opinion about the Enlargement of the European Union”, published only a few weeks ago in Journal of Common Market Studies, undoubtely will be of special interest for journalists. It investigates how news media content affects public support for the enlargement of the EU. A question of outstanding importance given the very fact that the influence of memberstates populations on enlargement decisions has grown tremendously during the last years, especially after the discussions about the Maastricht Treaty.
For more information about this article please visit the Ingenta Website. Here the full text article is availabe for purchase, too.
Because they are dealing with core aspects of the enlargement process, I strongly recommend seeing over both publications.
Wolfgang
