Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: B+, San Diego State University (Political Science), course: Graduate Research Seminar on the European Union, language: English, abstract: A paper presented at the European Union Center of California How did the power structures of the institutions adopt to the situation of involving ten new member states, which are mostly consisting of smaller populations. The development of power structures in the European institutions in regard to the European enlargement are investigated in this paper. A comparison of the different European institutions and their importance comes to the conclusion that, overall, the bigger states enlarged their power due to the European enlargement.