The European Union is taking determined steps towards further enlargement. This process invokes important political and institutional questions as well as geo-strategical considerations, and how these questions are answered will be decisive for the future shape and direction of the Union. To analyse these crucial issues, SIEPS gathered leading experts on enlargement for a full-day conference.
The conference consisted of an opening speech followed by four panels discussing the most impactful challenges facing the enlargement process:
Enlargement today – Is it different this time? This panel explored the meaning and impact of the enlargement process on the Union of today and tomorrow as regards institutional integration and geopolitics.
Process – The EU’s transformational impact on candidate states – is it enough? The accession process is perhaps the most central issue of enlargement: how the Union can support candidates in their preparations for membership. This panel discussed ideas on how to improve integration of candidates and thereby strengthen EU governance.
Security – How does enlargement affect the security of the EU and its ability to be a real security provider? Today’s enlargement process puts EU vulnerabilities on security and defence on display. The panel focused on the comprehensive demands that enlargement makes of the EU as a security actor in relation to its neighbourhood, alliances, and acceding countries.
Legitimacy – Public legitimacy and geopolitics ahead of the next enlargement: what is the cost of non-debate? Geostrategic urgency is the main driver of today’s enlargement process. But public concern about the direction of the Union is often overlooked. This panel discussed the need for public involvement in a process which will have a profound impact on the functioning of the EU.
The conference closed with a keynote speech on how the EU can ‘master the art of the (im)possible’.
Download the full conference programme here.
