24.06.08: Lisbon Deadlock Might Hit Croatia EU Hopes - The Diigo Meta page

• 25 Jun 08
  

  Prof. Dr Wolfgang Schumann

  lisbon-treaty enlargement enlargementpolicy_eu enlargementpolicymemberstates croatia westernbalkans

  • With EU enlargement in question following the Irish ‘no’ vote to the Lisbon Treaty, Zagreb fears a fresh delay to its accession.
  • Some experts also maintain that enlargement to include Croatia might be possible even if the Lisbon Treaty does not enter into force.
    
    The Brussels think tank, the European Policy Centre, for example, noted in a recent paper that while Croatian accession would require some adjustments to Nice, “some of these, concerning, for instance, the composition of EU institutions and the voting rules, could be introduced through the Accession Treaty with the next entrant (probably Croatia)”.
    
    Michael Emerson, enlargement expert for another EU think tank, the Centre for European Policy Studies, agrees.
    
    “It is not impossible legally for Croatia to come in with few bits of adjustment to exciting treaties”, Emerson said. “However politically, some member states will use this as leaver to try to get Lisbon Treaty through”, he added.

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