The MAXCAP Policy Brief No. 2 “Reinvigorating the Enlargement Process and Strengthening the EU’s Integration Capacity: Insights from MAXCAP” has been published. It puts emphasis on the policy implications of our interim research findings for the EU’s approach to support political and economic change in current and potential candidate countries so as to avoid disintegrative tendencies in the post-accession period. You can download the Policy Brief here.

The Policy Brief argues that the Eastern enlargement and political integration of the Central and Eastern European countries have neither undermined the EU political system nor deepened economic divergence between old and new members. The public perception and political debate, however, do not acknowledge the positive effects of enlargement. Moreover, during the Eastern enlargement the EU did not have tools at hand that would have helped the Central and East European economies to match domestic developmental needs with the requirements of honoring the rules of the single market. Also, the EU lacks tools to ‘lock-in’ political change in the new member states. Therefore, the Policy Brief argues that the EU should open up the debate on enlargement, increase the efficiency of policies to enforce the rule of law and increase the efficiency of pre-accession policies to foster inclusive development.

The MAXCAP Policy Briefs build on the project’s research on the EU’s integration capacity and aim to formulate specific policy recommendations for practitioners on the EU and/or national level. They are published by the MAXCAP Policy Task Force. The composition of the Task Force varies depending on the topic and expertise of MAXCAP partners.

It is the ob­jec­ti­ve of the MAX­CAP Policy Brief Se­ries to dis­se­mi­na­te the re­search re­sults of the re­search con­sor­ti­um to a wide au­di­ence, in­clu­ding the aca­de­mia as well as the ge­ne­ral pub­lic. Thus, all Policy Briefs can be down­loa­ded free of char­ge from our website.