Трансформация подхода малых открытых экономик к расширениям Европейского Союза

Abstract

The article deals with the transformation of the small open economies’ approach to the enlargement of the European Union. This issue is of particular scientific interest amid the ongoing discussions about the potential inclusion of new states in the EU and disagreements of the current EU members on this issue. The Netherlands was chosen as an object for the research, as it is a model state that played one of the pivotal roles in the development of integration in Europe. The purpose of the research is to identify the directions in which the Dutch approach to EU enlargements evolved. To achieve this goal, the factors that influenced small states’ approach to each of the EU enlargements are examined in detail using a combination of the concepts of a small state and a small open economy. Also, special attention is paid to the peculiarities of the eastern enlargement, which exacerbated the chronic imbalances in the union and laid the foundation for its structural crises. The research concluded that the Dutch approach to the EU enlargement is coherent: the small state supports the inclusion of more “developed” states in the union, which meets the interests of a trading nation, but takes a tough stance regarding accession of countries with unstable economies and fragile political institutions. The Dutch approach to this process consists of "three models": the first is applicable to the developed countries (the Netherlands supported the EU enlargements until 1995), the second to countries that have achieved a certain stability of the economy (the Hague expressed concern about the inclusion of a large number of CEE countries with economies in transition), the third to potential candidates for accession (the Netherlands rejects the possibility of including a number of Balkan states and Ukraine in the EU in the near future). Thus, the structural crises in Europe, exacerbated by the eastern enlargement, led to a certain hardening of the small open economies’ stance on the inclusion of new states in the EU.