Institut für Politikwissenschaft

PRINCE 2004: One more Brick on the Bridge


Enlargement: supporting the civil society in order to reduce doubts and fears in four European regions

The widespread opinion that, within the European Union enlargement, there is a risk of friction and resistance, represents an obstacle to the combined action of both the institutional and social components involved in this important shift process. In this sense, it is necessary to invent a strategy that make Europeans understand each other, “individualizing common interests and driving away the fears regarding the loss of the own identity provoked by the EU enlargement”.

The general objectives

The general objective is to sensitise and disseminate information about the implications and the consequences of the adhesion to the Union, in 2004, of the ten new members.

This project is divided in three main activities:

1- the research

2- the involvement of the Civil Society and the definition of information strategies

3- the information and sensitisation campaigns

It is as well true that the enlargement of the E.U. towards Eastern countries concerns mainly some specific countries: Germany, Italy and Austria are directly exposed to the entry flows of the new Europe; moreover, with the project of a further enlargement, these nations (particularly their North Eastern ramifications), will be obliged to face further migration spurs coming from the Danubian area. If the attention is focused at the geo-political level, it would be easy to think that doubts and fears of the enlargement are much more perceived in the areas that directly border with the “new Europe”. Nevertheless, it can’t be forgotten that frontiers also act as a “diaphragm” and that they don’t always represent the terminus of the migration flows: there are also intermediate boundaries which, even being geographically more distant from the areas which are directly exposed to the enlargement, act as catalyser of new international flows (financial, productive, and migratory). In short, the “hot zones” of the enlargement are not necessary in a direct contact with the new ten member States.

The Projekt Tübingen provides date on socio-economic conditions and strategies to adapt to the enlargemeNT of the EU in the case of Brandenburg


Projektbearbeitung: Dr. Harald Kohler
Projektleitung: Prof. Dr. Josef Schmid