EU enlargement agenda in post-February 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: between security concerns and contestation pressure

Abstract

The main objective of the panel proposal is to explore how EU institutions and member states respond to the challenges to EU foreign policy posed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and what role reinvigorated EU enlargement plays in these responses. As a matter of fact, the new dynamic was given to the EU enlargement policy in the new security context caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine (Orenstein, 2023). The EU elevated the status of Ukraine and Moldova, invigorated the process for Western Balkans, and reframed the enlargement as a case study of the revised geopolitical EU foreign policy priorities in the context of growing geopolitical tensions. Meantime, the reinvigorated EU enlargement is taking place in the growingly unstable international system and is facing the aggressive behavior of the EU’s adversaries (Aydın-Düzgit & Noutcheva, 2022; Dandashly & Noutcheva, 2022). In addition to that, there is a growing domestic contestation of EU enlargement and visible shifts toward a very pragmatic orientation regarding engagement with partner countries within the EU institutions and among EU member states and their citizens (Wunsch & Olszewska, 2022). That is why, the panelists will look at different EU institutions, member states, and policy areas to provide insights into the EU reactions to the new enlargement strategy. Based on their research the speakers will make an attempt to answer the question whether despite differences in the approaches, the EU institutions and like-minded states move in a similar direction towards pragmatic compromises that enable enlargement and greater foreign policy cooperation. The contributions will also analyze how the contestation increases in the candidate countries and assess the (r)-evolutionary transformation of the EU enlargement agenda in post-February 2022 Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its sustainability potential and geopolitical implications.

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