Enlargement policy has been re-discovered as the most powerful tool to stabilize the EU’s neighbourhood. Professor Daniela Schwarzer argues that enlargement will only be successful if the EU becomes more flexible in integrating new members and in its functioning, while enhancing legitimacy and protecting its basic principles more forcefully. (15 May)
Activating its enlargement process is not optional for the European Union. In this post, Professor Veronica Anghel argues that enlargement, particularly to wartime Ukraine, is a matter of institutional survival, a major push to enact reforms the EU needs, and a strategy for the EU to respond to the growing competitiveness gap between the organisation and global economic powers.
While bold decisions have brought enlargement back on the EU’s agenda, long-standing constraints and challenges remain. In this contribution, Professor Antoaneta Dimitrova sheds light on three dilemmas facing EU and candidate state leaders.
Can the EU accommodate an increased political and cultural diversity after a next round of enlargement? In this contribution, Saskia Hollander (Senior Research Fellow at Clingendael) assesses the impact of EU enlargement on the EU’s capacity to uphold democracy and the rule of law and project core values within its borders.
The stakes are high when Germany holds snap elections on 23 February 2025. For the EU, both domestic and European policies in the most populous country in the Union are of great importance. Valentin Kreilinger (SIEPS) analyses what the parties' positions, the possible coalitions and the upcoming policy decisions mean for Europe.
A long trend of increasing gender balance in the European Parliament was broken with the 2024 election results. Johanna Kantola, Professor at the University of Helsinki, analyses the state of gender equality in the European Parliament.
EU enlargement will have consequences for where foreign investment is made. Colin Wren (Newcastle University) examines past enlargements and draws conclusions about future ones: which countries will be most attractive to invest in as the EU grows?
Security and defence are high on the EU's agenda for the new political cycle. Katarina Engberg analyses the initiatives within the EU that point towards a total defence as well as the challenges and opportunities this brings.
EU speeches and policy documents feature many political concepts, both recurrent and new ones. What do these concepts imply – and what is it that EU leaders and institutions want to achieve by using them? SIEPS has asked leading experts to take a critical look.
How will the EU’s decision-making processes be affected if the number of member states grows significantly? This issue has been discussed since enlargement once again became a priority for the EU. In this analysis, Piret Ehin (University of Tartu) assesses the effects of three enlargement scenarios on the balance of power in the Council.