Functionalism is a theory of international relations that arose during the inter-War period

principally from the strong concern about the obsolescence of the State as a form of social
organization. Rather than the self-interest of nation-states that realists perceive as a
motivating factor, functionalists focus on common interests and needs shared by states (but
also by non-state actors) in a process of global integration triggered by the erosion of state
sovereignty and the increasing weight of knowledge and hence of scientists and experts in the
process of policy-making. Its roots can be traced back to the liberal/idealist tradition that
started with Kant and goes as far as Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" speech.
Some salient features to understand the theory of functionalism are stated below:

• According to David Mitrany (A Romanian born British Scholar who has provided
much basis for the theories of functionalism and neo-functionalism, especially in his
memoirs, “The Functional Theory of Politics” published in 1975) the collective
governance and 'material interdependence between states develops its own internal
dynamics as states integrate in limited functional, technical, and/or economic areas.
• International agencies would meet human needs, aided by knowledge and expertise.
• The benefits rendered by the functional agencies would attract the loyalty of the
populations and stimulate their participation and expand the area of integration.
• Functionalism proposes to build a form of authority based in functions and needs,
which links authority with needs, scientific knowledge, expertise and technology, i.e.
it provided a supra-territorial concept of authority.
There are strong assumptions underpinning functionalism:
1) That the process of integration takes place within a framework of human freedom,
2) That knowledge and expertise are currently available to meet the needs for which the
functional agencies are built.
3) That states will not sabotage the process.
Fundamental Principles of Functionalism
Dominant Goals: Peace and Prosperity
Instruments of State Policy: Economic instruments and political acts of will, reaching
consensus through mutual negotiations
Forces behind agenda formation: Initial emphasis on low politics, such as economic and
social issues
Role of International organizations: Promotes substantial international involvement as new
and functional international organizations will formulate policy and become increasingly
responsible for implementation
Neo-functionalism is a theory of regional integration, building on the works of Ernst B.
Haas, an American political scientist and also Leon Lindberg, an American political scientist
and David Mitrany. Jean Monnet's approach to European integration, which aimed at
integrating individual sectors in hopes of achieving spill-over effects to further the process of
integration, is said to have followed the neo-functional school's tack.
Neo-functionalists focused their attention in the process of integration among states, i.e.
regional integration. Initially, states integrate in limited functional or economic areas.
Thereafter, partially integrated states experience increasing momentum for further rounds of
integration in related areas. This "invisible hand" of integration phenomenon was termed
"spill-over." by the neo-functionalist school. Although integration can be resisted, it becomes
harder to stop integration's reach as it progresses.
According to neo-functionalists, there are two kinds of spill-over: functional and political.

• Functional spill-over is the interconnection of various economic sectors or issue-

areas, and the integration in one policy-area spilling over into others
• Positive spill-over effect is the notion that integration between states in one economic
sector will create strong incentives for integration in further sectors, in order to fully
capture the perks of integration in the sector in which it started.

• Political spill-over is the creation of supranational governance models, as far-reaching

as the European Union, or as voluntary as the United Nations.
Neo-functionalism describes and explains the process of regional integration with reference
to how three causal factors interact with one another:

• Growing economic interdependence between nations

• Organizational capacity to resolve disputes and build international legal regimes

• Supranational market rules that replace national regulatory regimes

 Enlargement of EU
Enlargement of the European Union is the process of expanding the European Union (EU)
through the accession of new member states. This process began with the Inner Six, who
founded the European Coal and Steel Community in 1952. Since then, the EU's membership
has grown to twenty-seven with the most recent expansion to Bulgaria and Romania in 2007.

Currently, accession negotiations are under way with several states. The process of
enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration. However, this term is also
used to refer to the intensification of co-operation between EU member states as national
governments allow for the gradual harmonisation of national laws.

To join the European Union, a state needs to fulfil economic and political conditions called
the Copenhagen criteria (after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993), which require a stable
democratic government that respects the rule of law, and its corresponding freedoms and
institutions. According to the Maastricht Treaty, each current member state and the European
Parliament must agree to any enlargement

Criteria for Accession

The Council would consult with the Commission and the European Parliament on beginning
accession negotiations. Today the accession process follows a series of formal steps, from a
pre-accession agreement to the ratification of the final accession treaty.

To receive a positive recommendation, the country must meet the following criteria:

• It must be a "European State"

• It must respect the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and
fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law.

To gain membership it must:

• Meet the following Copenhagen criteria established by the European Council in 1993:
o Stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights
and respect for and protection of minorities.
o The existence of a functioning market economy as well as the capacity to cope
with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union.
o The ability to take on the obligations of membership including adherence to
the aims of political, economic and monetary union.
o Must be willing to adopt the acquis communitaire EU law already agreed upon

Process
 • Before a country applies for membership it typically signs an association agreement to
help prepare the country for candidacy and eventual membership.
• When a country formally applies for membership, the Council asks the Commission
to prepare an opinion on the country's readiness to begin negotiations. The Council
can then either accept or reject the Commission's opinion.
• If the Council agrees to open negotiations the screening process then begins. The
Commission and candidate country examine its laws and those of the EU and
determine what differences exist.
• To assess progress achieved by countries in preparing for accession to the European
Union, the European Commission submits regular reports (yearly) to the European
Council.
• Once the negotiations are complete a treaty of accession will be signed, which must
then be ratified by all of the member states of the Union, as well as the institutions of
the Union, and the candidate country. Once this has been completed it will join the
Union on the date specified in the treaty.

Enlargements

Founding Members

The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was proposed by Robert Schuman in his
declaration on 9 May 1950 and involved the pooling the coal and steel industries of France
and West Germany. Half of the project states, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands,
had already achieved a great degree of integration between themselves with the organs of
Benelux and earlier bilateral agreements. These five countries were joined by Italy and they
all signed the Treaty of Paris on 23 July 1952.

These six members, dubbed went on to sign the Treaties of Rome establishing two further
communities, together known as the European Communities when they merged their
executives in 1967. However, there was no enlargement until the 1970s.

First Enlargement

The United Kingdom, which had refused to join as a founding member, changed its policy
following the Suez crisis and applied to be a member of the Communities. This was also due
to economic reasons; Britain was surprised at the success of the EEC and failed to secure a
free trade deal with it.

Enlargement of the EU has faced considerable opposition from the start. French President
Charles de Gaulle was successful in introducing a long pause in the process of integration and
opposed British membership fearing US influence, and vetoed both the times in 1963 & 67.
His successor François Mitterrand opposed Greek, Spanish and Portuguese membership
fearing they were not ready and it would water the community down to a free trade area.

Once de Gaulle had left office, the door to enlargement was once again opened. The EEC
economy had also slowed down and British membership was seen as a way to revitalize the
community.[5] Only after a 12-hour talk between British Prime Minister Edward Heath and
French President Georges Pompidou took place did Britain's third application succeed.
Applying together with the UK, as on the previous occasions, were Denmark, Ireland, and
Norway. These countries were so economically linked to the UK that they considered they
could not stay out of the EEC if the UK went in.[5] However the Norwegian government lost
a national referendum on membership and hence did not accede with the others on 1 January
1973.

Mediterranean Enlargement

The next enlargement would occur for different reasons. The 1970s also saw Greece, Spain,
and Portugal emerge from dictatorship. These countries desired to consolidate their new
democratic systems by binding themselves into the EEC. Equally, the EEC was unsure about
which way these countries were heading and wanted to ensure stability along its southern
borders. Greece joined the EU in 1981 and the two Iberian countries in 1986.

Post-Cold War

After the 1970s Europe experienced a downturn which led to leaders launching of the Single
European Act which set to create a single market by 1992. The effect of this was that EFTA
states found it harder to export to the EEC and businesses and wished to relocate within the
new single market. Austria, Finland and Sweden were neutral in the Cold War so
membership of an organisation developing a common foreign and security policy would be
incompatible with that. As that obstacle was removed, the desire to pursue membership grew
stronger. The end of the Cold War also saw, on 3 October 1990, the reunification of East and
West Germany. Hence East Germany became part of the Community in the new reunified
Germany.

The Community later became the European Union in 1993 by virtue of the Maastricht Treaty
and established standards for new entrants so their suitability could be judged. These
Copenhagen criteria stated in 1993 that a country must be a democracy, operate a free
market, and be willing to adopt the acquis communitaire EU law already agreed upon. Also
in 1993 the European Economic Area was established with the EFTA states except
Switzerland. Most of the new EEA states pursued full EU membership. With the EEA's
credibility dented following rejection by businesses and Switzerland, the EU agreed with full
membership. This was more readily accepted with the prospect of poorer eastern European
countries wishing to join; contributions from richer countries would help balance the EU
budget. So on 1 January 1995 Austria, Finland, and Sweden acceded to the EU marking its
fourth enlargement. The Norwegian government lost a second national referendum on
membership.

In 1993 European economic area was established with the EFTA states except Switzerland.
The EU was pointing the EFTA states in the direction of EEA rather than giving them full
membership. This was more readily accepted by the poorer eastern European countries, who
wished to join EU. However, this required richer countries to contribute more extensively to
help balance the EU budget.

Austria, Finland and Sweden were likely to bring affluent contributions to the EEC budget.
However, these countries were neutral during the cold war so membership of an orgnaization
developing common foreign and security policy would be incompatible with that. As that
obstacle was removed, the desire to pursue membership grew even stronger. So on January 1
1995, Austria, Finland, Sweden joined the EU making its fourth Enlargement.
Eastern enlargements

As with the Mediterranean countries in the 1980s, the former communist countries in Central
and Eastern Europe just emerged from dictatorship and wanted to consolidate their new
democracies. They also wanted to declare themselves part of "Europe" and ensure they did
not fall back into the Russian sphere of influence. The EU, and NATO, offered a guarantee of
this and the EU was also seen as vital to ensuring the economic success of those countries.
The EU's desire to accept these countries' membership application was however less than
rapid. The collapse of communism came quickly and was not anticipated. The EU struggled
to deal with the sudden reunification of Germany with the addition of its poorer 17 million
people and, while keeping its monetary union project on track, it was still at that early stage
pointing the EFTA countries in the direction of the EEA rather than full membership.

The former communist states persisted and eventually the above mentioned issues were
cleared. The US also pressured the EU to offer membership as a temporary guarantee; it
feared expanding NATO too rapidly for fear of frightening Russia. Although eventually
trying to limit the number of members, and after encouragement from the US, the EU
pursued talks with ten countries and a change of mind from Cyprus and Malta helped to
offset slightly the influx of large poor member states from the east.

In the end, eight Central and Eastern European countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,
Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), plus the Mediterranean islands of Malta
and Cyprus were able to join on 1 May 2004. This was the largest single enlargement in
terms of people, landmass and number of countries, though not in terms of GDP. The less
developed nature of these countries was of concern to some of the older member states, who
placed temporary restrictions on the rights of work of the citizens of these new eastern states
to their countries.

Following this Romania and Bulgaria, though were deemed initially as not fully ready by the
Commission to join in 2004, acceded nevertheless on 1 January 2007. These, like the
countries joining in 2004, faced a series of restrictions as to their citizens not fully enjoying
working rights on the territory of some of the older EU members for a period up to seven
years of their membership.

Future Enlargements

Article 49 of the Maastricht Treaty (as amended) says that any European state that respects
the "principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,
and the rule of law", may apply to join the Union.

Morocco and Turkey applied for membership in 1987. Morocco's application was turned
down as it was not considered European, while Turkey's application was accepted. However,
Turkey received candidate status only in 1999 and began official membership negotiations in
2004. Currently, 11 of the 35 chapters have been opened with Turkey (with 1 already closed)

The countries prioritized for membership are those with official candidate status, i.e., Croatia,
Iceland, Macedonia and Turkey. On 28 April 2009, Albania formally applied for membership
in the European Union. Serbia submitted its application for membership on 22 December
2009, while Montenegro had done so on 15 December 2008.