EU Enlargement in Times of Geopolitical Uncertainty: Insights from the European Parliament’s Western Balkans Delegations

After years of stagnation following Croatia’s 2013 accession, the EU enlargement process regained momentum after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This geopolitical shock created a new “Thessaloniki moment” for the Eastern Trio (Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) and revitalised the accession trajectory of the long-standing Western Balkan candidates. While most scholarship has focused on the Council and Commission, less is known about how this geopolitical shock has affected enlargement politics within the European Parliament. Taking the invasion as a critical juncture, this paper examines its impact on EP delegations and their work in Joint Parliamentary Committees (JPCs) with Western Balkan countries during the 9th parliamentary term. The analysis distinguishes between two dimensions of JPC activity: structural outcomes (organisation, modes of interaction, and joint outputs) and actor-centered dynamics of the EP delegation (participation patterns, polarisation, and discursive strategies MEPs use to justify their stance on enlargement). In doing so, the paper assesses whether the invasion has accelerated the geopoliticisation of enlargement politics and what this reveals about the evolving role of JPCs under conditions of geopolitical crisis.