Summary
Jeroen Bult
Een klein land keert terug in de Europese familie: Estland op weg naar het EU-lidmaatschap
Jeroen Bult gives an overview of the major political developments prior to Estonia's EU-membership. In the 1990s, Estonia made fast progress in fulfilling the Copenhagencriteria and became the economic success-story of Eastern Europe. In its successive reports, the assesments of the European Commission were relatively positive. On 14 September 2003, the Estonians voted in favour of EU-accession. However, up to the present, Estonia's relationship with Brussels has frequently been overshadowed by serious tensions with its former colonizer, Russia.