The fall of the Berlin Wall stirred up hope among the former-soviet countries. There, the populations aspired to freedom, democracy and human rights. But the fall of Berlin Wall also revealed some concerns regarding the rebirth of a “Great Germany.” The Council of Europe, a sort of waiting room on the path to entry into the EEC, was the first to respond to this citizens’ request through the integration of these countries beginning in 1989.

The European Union, whose boundaries were drawn in Maastricht in 1992, would take nearly fifteen years to widen out towards Central and Eastern Europe. The war in Yugoslavia revealed that the Union did not possess either the instruments of a defense policy or those of an effective foreign policy.