歐洲聯盟 2004 年 5 月以及 2007 年 1 月的東擴之舉係 1950 年代以來歐洲統合過程中重要的發展過程。這不僅是使得中東歐地區國家加入歐盟，更重要的意義在於將不同地區文化與結構透過改革的轉軌過程中融入了歐盟的價值。因此，在歐盟未來的主要擴大議程中也包含了土耳其、克羅埃西亞以及西巴爾半島地區國家。對於歐盟而言，加強並保障有關區域和平、穩定、 繁榮、民主、人權以及歐洲法治的理念價值是相當重要的。 對土耳其而言，與歐盟的關係已歷..

The Eastern Enlargement of the European Union in the year of 2004 and 2007 is one of the most significant developments in the process of European Integration since the 1950s. And with Turkey and the Western Balkan States, enlargement will continue to be one of the major issues on the political agendas. More recently, the EU has inspired tremendous reforms in Turkey, Croatia and the Western Balkans. It is vitally important for the EU to ensure a carefully managed enlargement process that extends peace, stability, prosperity, d..

歐洲統合的進程在經濟、文化與推動西方普世價值方面已使得歐洲聯盟成為一個全球「公民強權」的角色，但是是否藉此轉化成為一個「軍事強權」，仍然是歐盟各會員國爭論的焦點。從馬斯垂克條約將「共同外交與安全政策」納入歐盟決策的三大支柱之一後，歐盟在外交與安全政策的合作才開始具備法律的基礎。但是一九九0年代發生於歐洲本身的區域衝突，凸顯歐盟在解決歐洲本身軍事爭端時的無力感。在一九九0年代末期發展出的「歐洲安全與防衛政策」即著眼於歐盟自主軍事力量的整合與強化，以期因應未來可能發生的區域與國際衝突。 ..

The process of the European integration in economic, cultural and universalising Western values in the past half century has reinforced EU's role as a global “civilian power”. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty founded a “Common Foreign and Security Policy ”, as one of the three pillars of EU, providing c0operation of foreign and security policies among member states with a legal basis. Nevertheless, regional conflicts in Europe of hte 90s only demonstrated that EU was not yet capable of solving military conflicts in its..