The Impact of EU Accession on the Legal Orders of New Member States and (Pre-) Candidate Countries: Hopes and Fears.

Abstract

In 2004, ten countries joined the European Union as Member States and five others (Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Turkey) had or received (pre-)candidate country status. EU accession requires significant adaptations in the laws and policies of a country. In order to analyse the impact of these developments and support the countries concerned, the T.M.C. Asser Institute in The Hague initiated a project which started in early 2003 and concluded during the Dutch EU presidency in October 2004. The fifteen country reports resulting from that project, written by national experts and updated by the volume editors, are presented in this book. As a comparative study of these countries, this is an excellent guide for the preparation of the national legal orders for EU accession, for briefing and training civil servants, judges, practitioners, officials of international organizations, and will be of great interest to academics and post-graduate students