European Union and the Challenges of Globalization

Abstract

One may say that the European Union is a success story: it is growing and in 2004 it witnessed the most significant enlargement in its history up to now – 10 new countries have become members;two other new countries – Romania and Bulgaria – are ready to join the Union. Beyond these positive and encouraging facts the European Union seems to be confronted with a weakness with no self-evident cause, with an erosion of its future position the mood of the European Union is characterized by dualism and the balance seems to be condemned to instability in the long run. The cause responsible for this situation is globalization which substantially changes the rules of the game: in a nutshell, in the globalized context the new technologies enable that everything can be produced everywhere and everybody can compete with everybody.European Union, globalization, protectionism, enlargement