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Schmidtchen, Dieter; Neunzig, Alexander; Schmidt-Trenz, Hans-Jörg --- "Enlargement of the European Union and the Approximaton of Law: lessons from an economic theory of optimal legal areas" [2002] ELECD 18; in Marciano, Alain; Josselin, Jean-Michel (eds), "The Economics of Harmonizing European Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002)

Book Title: The Economics of Harmonizing European Law

Editor(s): Marciano, Alain; Josselin, Jean-Michel

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781840646085

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Enlargement of the European Union and the Approximaton of Law: lessons from an economic theory of optimal legal areas

Author(s): Schmidtchen, Dieter; Neunzig, Alexander; Schmidt-Trenz, Hans-Jörg

Number of pages: 16

Extract:

11. Enlargement of the European Union
and the Approximation of Law:
lessons from an economic theory of
optimal legal areas
Dieter Schmidtchen, Alexander Neunzig and
Hans-Jörg Schmidt-Trenz

11.1 INTRODUCTION
Enlargement of the European Union means extending the area in which
Union Law rules. As the Commission in its `Agenda 2000. For a stronger
and wider Union' declares, new members have to `take on the rights and
obligations of membership on the basis of the acquis as it exists at the time
of accession; they will be expected to apply, implement and enforce the
acquis upon accession; in particular the measures necessary for the exten-
sion of the single market should be applied immediately' (Bulletin of
the European Union, Supplement 5/97, p. 52). Currently, several applicant
countries, among them Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland,
Slovenia, try to meet this challenge with the assistance of the European
Commission.
If the European Union were only an economic entity, then the determi-
nation of the optimal size would seem to be an easy task: it should be as
large as possible (see also Gros and Steinherr 1995, p. 503). But for the
European Union as a legal area things might look different: presumably, its
optimum size is neither one member state, nor is it all states in the world
with their heterogeneous preferences, different income levels, and specific
cultural and legal histories. But where exactly should the Union border be
drawn?
This chapter addresses the enlargement issue from the ...