Baltic States in an Enlarging European Union
Towards a Partnership Between Small States?

Edited by Katlijn Malfiet & Wim Keygnaert
October 1999
Garant
Distributed by
ISBN: 9053508597
187 pages, 6 1/2 x 9 3/4"
$62.50 Hardback

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Europe is in transition. At the end of the twentieth century the enlargement of the European Union towards Central and Eastern Europe is a complex process, which needs thorough examination. However, it is already clear that this transition process will have geopolitical, economic and cultural consequences, the effect of which will have their impact deep into the next century.

The Institute for European Policy is an interdisciplinary research institute at the Department of Polical Sciences of the K.U. Leuven. It studies the institutional transformation processes from a pan-European perspective. The essays presented in this publication, were collected by the Institute for European Policy, within the framework of the Baltic-Flemish cooperation project between the Institute for European Policy and the Universities of Tartu, Riga and Vilnius. This partnership, entitled 'Economic Legislation in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: a Flemish-European Harmonisation Proposal,' analyses the current economic legislation of the three Baltic States and compares it with the European Union's economic legislation in a juridical and policy analysis.

At a Round Table meeting in Regia in September 1998 all Baltic and Flemish partners met for the first time. Interesting conclusions - points of convergence and divergence - were drawn from the comparison of on to one hand Estonia's, Latvia's and Lithuania's policy as small states working towards full membership of the EU and on the otehr hand of Belgium as small state within the EU. The mixture of Baltic and Flemish academics and government experts proved to be very fruitful when it came to an ad rem and critical analysis of the current EU enlargement process. This publication is a reflexion on ideas discussed at that Round Table meeting and deals with the effects of reception and tendencies in the adaptation of the acquis communautaire of small states.

Contents:
The Baltic Flanders Co-operation Project: Some remarks on the Difficult Quest for the 'Right Legal Framework'
Influence of Different International and Supra-National Instruments on Rules of Domestic Law (Case of Corpus Iuris)
Estonia's Accession to the European Union: Effects, Expectations, and Interests
The Implementation of Copenhagen Political Criteria for EU Membership by Latvia
The Reform of the Economic Legislation of the Baltic States -
     In the Framework of their Integration in the the European Union
Is Small Beautiful in the European Union? Experiences from Belgium
Management of European Union Affairs at the Executive Level in Lithuania,
    Latvia, Estonia and other Associated Central and East European Countries
The Impact of the European Union on Baltic Cooperation
Reflections on Small States and Their Influence in the European Union

Political Science
History and Theory


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