EU enlargement in a new light

During two summits in March 2022, in Versailles and Brussels, European leaders expressly declined to grant candidate status or even a membership perspective to Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. While supporters of the expansion called for a recognition of Ukraine’s place in the European family, most governments were skeptical and reluctant to take the process further. Why is that? What would it take to garner more support for the initiation of the expansion process? And what role could membership play in future peace talks? The question of EU enlargement requires an examination of the topic from multiple perspectives. In the first session, we will discuss EU architecture and enlargement from a political economy perspective. Deepening vs widening is the trade-off at the heart of the EU’s future enlargement. We take a look at the spectrum of arguments in this first session. In the second session, we will focus on the economic, political and security aspects of enlargement in the specific case of Ukraine as well as the unique features to the case, particularly its reconstruction. This event is co-hosted with Internomics.