This collection of essays reflects on the fifth enlargement of the European Union, projected to take place in 2004. It examines the process of enlargement, its impact on both the candidate States and on the institutions and policies of the European Union. In so doing, it discusses these issues from a variety of perspectives - legal, economic and political - reflecting the different dimensions of the enlargement project. This enlargement will be unlike any other, not only in terms of its scale, and the unprecedented nature of the lengthy and complex pre-accession process, but also in its wider implications for the future direction of the European Union itself and for the whole of Europe. The contributions thus focus not only on the adjustments having to be made by the candidate States and the EU's institutions, but also on enlargement as an interaction between the candidate States and the European Union, and between the EU and the wider world community. Policies which have developed and matured during this enlargement, such as conditionality, also have effects on regions and States which are outside the current enlargement process, such as the Balkans.
