Abstract
"The future of Europe never appeared so dubious. Neither did some of its possible futures appear so promising" affirms Jean-Paul Fitoussi in his book devoted to the problems of the conflict between the national interests and the requirements of convergence in Europe1. In fact, for the eastern countries including France, Germany and the other countries in the historical European Union, EU-enlargement represents the result of a political and economic transition that started in the beginning of the Nineties. But the integration of the eastern countries, achieved in May 2004, caused (and till today continues to cause) new prospects and strong concerns among the populations and the politicians to rise. And that is why so many people stress today this question: what has the eastern enlargement really brought to the European Union? Thus we will make an assessment of what this enlargement brought to the EU and support finally the idea of a future positive role of these countries in spite of all the current critics.
