Dr Ulrich Sedelmeier (London School of Economics and Political Science) held a lecture at the workshop “EU Enlargement 2004, 10 Years after: Politics and Law” organized by the Institute for European Integration and the Department of European International and Comparative Law of the University of Vienna on the 5th of May 2014.

In his lecture Dr Sedelmeier stated that the EU¹s eastern enlargement has been hailed as a major success for the EU¹s ability to promote democracy, the rule of law, and regulatory alignment in post-communist Europe. However, there has been skepticism about whether this success is sustainable after accession, and whether it can be replicated in remaining accession candidates in the Western Balkans and Turkey, and in the EU¹s eastern neighbourhood. He assessed the EU¹s continued ability to influence domestic change in new member, candidate, and neighbouring states and explained why the power of conditionality ­ albeit more limited than before ­ has remained surprisingly strong. Additionally, he discussed the meaning of the EU¹s enlargement for the so-called old member states and for the EU as a whole.

The workshop was moderated by Gerda Falkner (Head, Institute and Platform for European Integration Research, University of Vienna), comments and statements were given by Verica Trstenjak (Faculty of Law, Department of European, International and Comparative Law, University of Vienna) Marcella Prunbauer-Glaser (former President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, CCBE) Dieter Segert (Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science, Deputy Spokesman for Research platform Wiener Osteuropaforum, University of Vienna).

More information about the event can be found under http://eif.univie.ac.at/events/.