Samenvatting

Enlargement fatigue is an effect that has been felt in the European Union (EU) by member states ever since its creation in 1957. Enlargement fatigue can be felt in the member states in two different ways, which are the constitutional deepening of the EU and the geographical widening of the EU. While using a comparative research, the reasons why member states no longer want to enlarge have been investigated in four different member states. France, Ireland, Germany and Lithuania have been used in order to cover all different angles on enlargement fatigue. Each country has its own reasons to feel the fatigue, which are sometimes the same reasons as those of other member states, but at times the causes are unique and are solely related to domestic causes. Moreover, one ever-returning theme is the democratic deficit that is present in the EU and nation-states. In each of the cases it has been examined whether the countries have suffered from a democratic deficit in their decision making process, as this plays an important role with regards to the enlargement fatigue. Other important components that have an influence on enlargement fatigue are migration, economic reasons and domestic interest. These have also been used to investigate whether these have caused enlargement fatigue.
Furthermore, the research is centred on a few EU milestones in this timeframe, which are: the Treaty of Nice, the EU Constitution, The Lisbon Treaty and the accession of Turkey. These themes all play an important role, as they are all concerned with either widening or deepening of the EU. Similar and different causes for enlargement fatigue have been found, which is interesting, as it is an ever-returning theme in the EU.