The impact of EU enlargement on EU-Russia relations

Abstract

The end of the Cold War, the dissolution of the USSR and the fall of the Berlin Wall, created a major change on the European political scene. Whilst Jacques Delors and his team were instituting new changes within the European Community, the newly independent ex-Soviet bloc countries were knocking on the Community's doors. With Russia still a major threat at the time to European security, the European Community was at first reluctant to take on these countries. The Community initiated the step towards building proper relations with the former Soviet Union after Gorbachev indicated that he wanted to establish new relations with Europe. A joint declaration of mutual recognition was signed and later a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement for Russia was established and relations have been developing ever since. The forthcoming enlargement of the European is a major event not only because ten countries will be joining altogether but also because the majority of these are ex-Soviet bloc countries. This enlargement is also set to have an impact upon relations between the European Union and Russia. The European Union and Russia already co-operate on a number of issues laid down in the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, however with enlargement the importance of these issues will increase dramatically as shared borders become longer. This study tries to shed a little more light on how both the Union and Russia intend or propose to improve their relations and enhance further co-operation in the near future.