Bulgaria and Romania – The Road to EU
The main cause with this study was to examine if Bulgaria’s and Romania’s road to EU have been similar, and which possibilities the EU has had to directly influence the countries, and which problems were the main explanation/reason to why the countries did not get the possibility/opportunity to accede to the EU already in 2004. This took place through a qualitative text analysis where the multipel case study was the method used. The study was divided into two different dimensions; macro and micro, where macro have been the tools that the EU uses in an enlargement process, and micro have been the way the tools were used in the study’s two different countries, and the way the countries worked amongst the tools. The study has had two theoretical approaches; the neo-realistic, and the constructivistic. By this two contrastory theories it was explained which way the two dimensions took. In the analytical description the two countries way to the EU was compared, where only marginal differences between the countries were found, and the same result were found amongst the citizens’ attitudes towards the EU and Europe. The two tools mainly used in the accession process were the Copenhagen Criterias, and an invisible tool in the shape of pressures and threats from the EU to push the countries into change. The defining reasons to why the countries were unable to accede to the EU in 2004, were the high level of corruption in the countries, the discrimination of the Roman minority (within the countries) and finally the administrative confusion which lead to ineffective authorities. The study was able to explain the macro level foremost from a neo-realistic view, mainly because the chief aim was to create equal states and the micro level mainly from a constructivistic perspective since the countries act in collusion with its citizens.
Keywords: Bulgaria, Romania, Neo-realism, Constructivism, the EU, Copenhagen Criterias
2008-06-05.