Effects of Baltic EU Membership on Northern Europe. Conference Report

Effects of Baltic EU Membership on Northern Europe. Conference Report. Riga: Latvian Institute of International Affairs, 2001.

The report contains speeches and discussions that took place during the conference "Effects of Baltic EU Membership on Northern Europe" (Riga, June 20-21, 2001). The report focuses particularly on three topics: the effects of EU enlargement on the Baltic see region; the effects of an enlarged EU on Russia and particularly its North Western part; the new opportunities for international business provided by the EU enlargement. The general conclusion is that states will gain much more opportunities than problems after accession to the EU. Potentially even Russia may benefit a lot from the EU enlargement but this will depend on its efforts to make use of the new opportunities. Moreover the benefits for Russia will be largely of long-term rather than short-term character. In terms of security, co-operation between the EU and Russia will largely depend on Russia’s success in reforming its armed forces. Moreover the prospects of further co-operation between regions of Russia and future EU member-states will depend on how strict outside border regime the EU will impose. In any case, it is the strategic interest of the countries of the region to at least partially integrate Russia in both the EU and NATO.