The international system of Europe has fundamentally changed when the
Cold War came to an end in 1989-1991. One of the results, is that the
Central and East European countries which previously were part of the
USSR's empire, want to become part of Europe as embodied by the Europe
an Union (EU). There are, however, problems largely unrecognised by th
e EU membership candidates, This is the topic of the following contrib
ution written by Jacqui Moorhouse, London School of Economics.