Redrawing the Map of Europe: Spatial Formation of the EU's Eastern Dimension

How to write about the many, diverse, politically contested and often highly contradictory meanings of Eastern Europe in a short text? In this article, I approach Eastern Europe from the perspective of the recent (2004) expansion of the European Union (EU) by introducing two among the many geographical themes that have appeared in research within the past few years. I examine the recent EU expansion first from the constructionist viewpoint by introducing the political geography of the ‘return to Europe’ discourse championed by the drivers of the enlargement. Second, I discuss the possible boundary regimes in the eastern part of the EU. These two phenomena are inescapably interlinked and form what might be called the EU's eastern dimension. Finally, I introduce some themes that merit scholarly attention as the EU is preparing for future expansion.