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Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Antonia --- "The Impact of EU Enlargement on Private Law Governance in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Consumer Protection" [2008] ELECD 192; in Cafaggi, Fabrizio; Muir Watt, Horatia (eds), "Making European Private Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008) 10

Book Title: Making European Private Law

Editor(s): Cafaggi, Fabrizio; Muir Watt, Horatia

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847201980

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: The Impact of EU Enlargement on Private Law Governance in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of Consumer Protection

Author(s): Bakardjieva Engelbrekt, Antonia

Number of pages: 40

Extract:

5. The impact of EU enlargement on
private law governance in Central and
Eastern Europe: the case of consumer
protection
Antonina Bakardjieva Engelbrekt1

1. INTRODUCTION
The impact of European Union (EU) enlargement on law and institution-build-
ing in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has attracted considerable political
and academic attention during the last decade. The terms `external gover-
nance' and `governance by conditionality' coined by political scientists
capture the gist of that debate (Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2004; Grabbe
2006), for the Central and East European countries (CEECs)2 accession to the
EU has been an unquestioned political priority ever since these states applied
for membership of the Union. At the same time, the conditions for `joining the
club' set out by the EU have been numerous and demanding. Conditionality
has thus determined the agenda of legal and institutional reform in CEE, effec-
tively setting aside local preferences and priorities.
Acknowledging conditionality as a major feature of the still ongoing east-
ward expansion of the Union and distinguishing it from previous enlarge-
ments, the discussion has focused on the present compliance with the
Community acquis and speculating about its post-accession evolution
(Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier 2005). The perspective of such inquiries has
been predominantly that of the EU and less so that of individual acceding
states. What is remarkable is that the specific context of the simultaneous tran-


1 This research was supported by a Jean Monnet Fellowship at the EUI,
Florence. Financial assistance from the STINT foundation is gratefully ...