Abstract
The rejection of the draft of the European Constitution by France and the Netherlands in 2005 through two negative referendums revealed a fear toward the European Union. That fear can be in part explained by the fact that the European Union failed to define precisely its frontiers. For instance, in France, the opposition to an enlargement to Turkey has been a strong argument. The European Union (EU) is composed of 27 states which are linked by common political institutions and economic and social policies. The issue of its boundaries was less debatable during the Cold War. 'Europe' was assimilated to 'Western Europe', given that the EU aimed to counter the soviet influence. However, the issue of the definition of the EU's Eastern border has been at stake since the Cold War ended. Nowadays, a lot of Central and Oriental European countries which have been freed from the soviet influence or have taken their independence from the USSR share the EU liberal values. Ten of them have entered the EU in 2004 and in 2007. Ukraine which was a component of the USSR and became independent in 1991 is not one of them, despite that Leonid Kuchma, who has been the Ukrainian President from 1994 to 2004, did want Ukraine to enter the EU.
