Publication

This paper argues that the European Union needs to define its strategy for the Wider Europe before the Eastern enlargement. It proposes that the EU declares the whole of the Wider Europe as an area of vital concern. The area consists of three large regions, each having categorically different political characters: the enlarging EU space, defined as all countries that are, or want to be full members, even if only in the long-run; Russia, as the outstanding European state that does not seek EU membership; and the Greater Middle East, which is taken to include the south and east Mediterranean states of the Barcelona Process, plus Saudi Arabia and Iran.