Accession Twenty Years On – Experiences, Expectations and Effects on the European Union: Introductory Remarks

Abstract This introduction summarizes the pathways up to and the experience of membership of the European Union of five recent member countries: Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia, all of which acceded in 2004 or, in the case of, Romania, in 2007. Key economic and domestic political developments as well as changes in public attitude to European integration are addressed using a comparative pattern; in addition, future research priorities are outlined in the hope of encouraging further academic and policy-oriented study both in the respective member countries and on the European scale.