Description
This paper traces the developments and debates on enlargement in the EU and its neighbourhood over the last two decades with regards to the imaginations of temporality invoked through the enlargement process. Against the background of the recently proclaimed revival of enlargement, it asks how temporality as a dimension of enlargement helps us understand the oftentimes contradictory developments in this policy field. I argue that current enlargement dynamics exhibit a temporality paradox with dynamics pulling in different directions. In particular EU-South East Europe relations exemplifies these multiple and paradoxical temporalities very well. The paper starts by examining temporality as a dimension of EU enlargement. It then identifies three temporality paradoxes that trouble enlargement relations. Firstly, linear imaginary of enlargement temporality clashes with a backwards temporality which is exemplified by the recent introduction of the possibility of closing chapters. Secondly, the image of the waiting room underlines time as an opportunity and a risk for enlargement. Thirdly, the imagined future in the EU works both as a motor and a break for further enlargement. I then show how EU-South East Europe relations reveal the three temporality paradoxes.
