Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Vanquished the Strong.
By Tom Gallagher.
Publisher: Manchester University Press.
Date of publication: 8 June 2009
ISBN 078-0-7190-7743- 2, £60.00, hardback
304 pp.
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk,
mup@manchester.ac.uk
According to Tom Gallagher, Romania's predatory rulers, the heirs of the communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausecsu, have inflicted a stinging defeat on the European Union. He argues convincingly that Brussels was tricked into offering full membership to this Balkan country in return for substantial reforms which its rulers now refuse to carry out. This book unmasks the failure of the EU to match its visionary promises of transforming Romania with the shabby reality. Benefiting from access to internal reports and leading figures involved in a decade of negotiations, it shows how Eurocrats were outwitted by unscupulous local politicians who turned the EU's multi-level decision-making processes into a laughing-stock. The EU's famous 'soft power'
turnd out to be a mirage, as it was unable to summon up the willpower to insist that this key Balkan state embraced its standards of behaviour in the political and economic realms.
The book unravels policy failures in the realms of justice, administration, agriculture and pre-accession aid and shows how Romania moved backwards politically during the years of negotiations. It is an invaluable book for academic and studenmts who need to know about the practice, as well as the theory of eastern enlargement, and will be an effective tool for policy-makers, business people, and others involved with Romania.
Professor Tom Gallaghr has taught at the Department of Peace Studies, Bradford
University for many years and six of his nine single-authored books have explored the political and international relations of the Balkans.
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