8. EU Expansion and Wider Europe

• Main Author: Avery, Graham
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press 2015
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/hepl/9780199685370.003.0008; https://www.oxfordpoliticstrove.com/view/10.1093/hepl/9780199685370.001.0001/hepl-9780199685370-chapter-8?print=pdf

This chapter focuses on the expansion of the European Union and the widening of Europe. Enlargement is often seen as the EU's most successful foreign policy. It has extended prosperity, stability, and good governance to neighbouring countries by means of its membership criteria. However, enlargement is much more than foreign policy: it is the process whereby the external becomes internal. It is about how non-member countries become members, and shape the development of the EU itself. The chapter first compares widening and deepening before discussing enlargement as soft power. It then explains how the EU has expanded and why countries want to join. It also looks at prospective member states: the Balkan countries, Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland. Finally, it examines the European Neighbourhood Policy.