EU enlargement in a new light

What would increase government support around EU enlargement, and what role could membership play in future peace talks?

Time and location: 21 June 2022 15:45-19:00
Bruegel, Rue de la Charité 33, 1210 Brussels
Contact: Matilda Sevón
Partners: Intereconomics

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 discussed 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 looked at the spectrum of arguments in this first session.

In the second session, we focused 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.

Speakers

Chair: Maria Demertzis, Leader, ESF, The Conference Board Europe
Marek Dabrowski, Bruegel Non-resident fellow
André Sapir, Bruegel Senior fellow

Chair: Jiffer Bourguignon, Editor, Intereconomics
Tinatin Akhvlediani, Research Fellow, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
Elise Bernard, Director of Studies, EuropaNova
Ilona Sologoub, Editor, VoxUkraine

Theme: Macroeconomic policy and governance
Country: Ukraine
Language: English