Maritime Europe and EU enlargement. A geopolitical perspective

✍ Scribed by Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero; Juan Carlos Rodríguez Mateos

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 304 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0308-597X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.marpol.2004.11.002

✦ Synopsis

The 2004 enlargement of the European Union (EU), as well as the further enlargements planned from 2007 onwards (Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey), entail changes of a geo-political nature that not only imply an increase in size (a rise in the number of States, new boundaries), but, more especially, also involve a shift in the EU's maritime status, with its projection towards the Atlantic now being checked by a swing towards continental Europe and its inland seas. In view of the new political map being drawn up, two questions beg to be asked: to what extent is Europe's maritime condition being strengthened; and, does the new maritime Europe constitute an opportunity, or does it aggravate the already-existing problems and threats?