The number of post-Soviet frozen conflicts has only grown, as a result of the failure of international mediation to solve them. After Nagorno-Karabakh, Transnistria and Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it seems that eastern Ukraine also qualifies as a frozen conflict.
With Prime Minister David Cameron having vowed to hold a referendum on UK membership of the EU, Britain's penchant for EU bashing is well publicised. But there are political parties in other member states which are far from in love with the European project, and whose stance against integration has been fanned by the worsening of the economic crisis.
The EU has gained valuable experience in recent years in achieving visa-free travel for the citizens living in its neighbourhood. After the countries of the Western Balkans, the next on their way toward achieving visa-free travel are its eastern partners, with Russia, Ukraine and Moldova leading the way. However, this goal is unlikely to be achieved in the short term.
The European Union and Ukraine have been long-negotiating an Association Agreement tied with an unprecedentedly far-reaching free trade deal. At stake is not only the economic partnership, but also the country's political future, caught between historic ties with Moscow and uncertain prospects of prosperity and 'Europeanisation' with Brussels.
Paving the way for an "ambitious" agreement on the 2014-2020 budget, energy security and the European Union's Eastern neighbourhood are all key priorities of the Polish EU Presidency during the second half of 2011. The Poles, for their part, have pulled all the stops to ensure that the Union remains committed to redistributive policies at a time of economic austerity.
Switzerland is the third largest economic partner of the EU, after the USA and China. Switzerland is able to participate in the EU's single market thanks to a series of bilateral agreements. This approach suits the Swiss confederation, but its complexity has become problematic for the EU and attempts are now under way to simplify the relationship.
Despite problems with corruption and organised crime, Montenegro, a small Adriatic country with a population of less than a million, is set to open EU membership talks as early as 2011.
Although Bosnia and Herzegovina hopes to join the EU one day, political infighting between Serb, Muslim and Croat communities is threatening to derail the country from its path towards European integration.
Albania formally applied for EU membership in April 2009, but if its accession bid is to move forward it must tackle a number of issues: particularly political stability, economic reform and corruption.
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's bid to join the EU is currently blocked by a dispute with Athens over its name, which is identical to that of a Greek province.
Serbia, the 'core country' of the former Yugoslavia, is now firmly on track to join the EU after a series of fratricidal wars in the nineties tested the international community's resolve and engaged considerable diplomatic and military resources.
In the midst of the economic crisis, Iceland identified stabilising its economy by joining the European Union as a viable solution to its problems. The Nordic country, which has a well-developed relationship with the EU as a member of the European Economic Area (EEA), formally applied for EU membership on 16 July 2009.
The EU's main objective for the Western Balkans region (South East Europe) is to create a situation where military conflict is unthinkable – expanding to the region the area of peace, stability, prosperity and freedom, established over the last fifty years in the European Union. The countries of Western Balkans have all been given the prospect of EU membership.
Sustainable trade implies a trading system that does not harm the environment or deteriorate social conditions while promoting economical growth.
The Commission adopted a Communication on the Western Balkans and European Integration on 21 May 2033, proposing pre-accession type relations with the region. A new European Integration Partnership is to be created under this proposal as an instrument for monitoring the progress of the reform process in the Balkans countries.
The EU will continue enlarging after the current wave, which will add 10 Member States on 1 May 2004. Bulgaria and Romania could join the EU in 2007 if they fulfil all the membership criteria. Turkey's candidature will be reviewed at the end of 2004, and Ankara will be able to start accession negotiations with the EU if it fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria. Croatia formally applied for for membership in the EU on 20 February 2003, and the Council asked the Commission on 14 April 2003 to submit its opinion on this application. In its second annual Stabilisation and Association Process report, released on 26 March 2003, the Commission said that the enlargement process would extend to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro after the planned accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.
Since the 1987 Brundtland report, the concept of sustainable development has entered the political arena. Its most common definition reads: "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In the EU debate, sustainable development is often seen as encompassing three dimensions: the environmental, the economic and the social (the "triple bottom line").
