“EUROPEANIZATION”AS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: SCOPE, NECESSITY AND THE LIMITS

European Union (EU) has an evident impact on the member and the candidate states’ political and economic structures. This impact is expressed as “Europeanization” from the beginning of 1990s which became a fashionable term and a conceptual framework in academic literature. Aim of this article is to elaborate the Europeanization concept and its scope with its necessity and limits. In the article, it is argued that Europeanization is a useful concept to evaluate the impact of the EU; however it necessitates a multi-faceted approach for elaboration due to the different characteristics of the variables.