Abstract
After the last European enlargement on 1st May 2004, the European Union got new neighbors, mainly in the East but a few also in the Middle East. But the neighbors do not all have the same juridical status. For some of them inclusion is already on its way, like for Romania and Bulgaria who signed the treaty of accession, or like Turkey and Croatia who finally opened, very recently, their first chapters of negotiation for accession. As far as the Balkans are concerned, the membership is also envisaged in the long-term perspective for some countries. Croatia as we said, but also Macedonia have the most advanced status, but things have moved recently for Montenegro and Serbia and for Albania which started a « stabilization and association process » a few days ago. But for many other neighbors of the EU, their relations with the latter are made of bilateral agreements, association and cooperation process, with no perspective of political integration.
