EU eastern enlargement: Does the increasing heterogeneity of EU member states require more flexible EU institutions?

The enlargement of the European Union to 25 member states planned for 2004 brings enormous challenges for the institutional rules of the EU. The assignment of individual policy areas is especially controversial with regard to national or European-level decision-making bodies. This article focuses on the opinions of European citizens on this question. On the basis of surveys of Eurobarometer, Prof. Joachim Ahrens, European Business School at the International University in Schloss Reichartshausen, and Martin Meurers, Ifo Institute, quantified the heterogeneity of opinions in the present and in the expanded European Union and analyse, on the basis of the surveyed preferences for or against an EU competence in individual policy areas, the implications for the decision-making processes in the European Council of Ministers.