Further enlargement or Wider Europe Economic Area? 

The ongoing enlargement to 12+1 candidate countries has opened the debate on the future frontiers of the European Union with the rest of Europe, and on the extent to which the EU can continue expanding without damaging its internal functioning.

In his recent paper, entitled "The European Union: integration or disintegration", Chairman of The European Policy Centre Stanley Crossick says that one solution worth studying is the creation of a Wider Europe Economic Area (WEEA). "This would be open to all the countries of CEE; the Central and Eastern European Free Trade Area (CEFTA) could be merged into the new organisation; and the EU itself could be member.

Senior Research Fellow of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Michael Emerson, looks at four enlargement scenarios in his recent commentary, and advocates what he calls "New European Order" - a strategy for an enlarging EU that blends in coherently with the even wider frontier questions of the future, namely how the EU of 25 to 30 member states will relate to the rest of Europe.

The debate originates in recent articles by former Commission President Jacques Delors, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing and former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. They all advocate closer integration among the existing EU members, while Delors even proposes creation of "a European Federation" while giving the candidate countries a more ample "European Conference" process to show that they are part of the "European family".