PERSPEKTÍVY BUDÚCEHO SMEROVANIA INTEGRÁCIE EURÓPSKEJ ÚNIE

Beginning of the 21st century has brought new challenges to the European Union that are crucial for its future. As a result of political changes in Europe at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s space for enlargement evolved and the Central and Eastern European countries showed definite interest in EU membership. Furthermore, there are other factors to be taken into account with regard to developments in the EU. Probably the most important one is the globalization process. Reflections on optimisation of inner isolation from other nations are undoubtedly obsolete. The Union has to offer framework conditions to ensure internal and external security to the whole integrated area and its members. This article focuses on changes in the integration process of the EU invoked by the facts mentioned above.