New Candidates, New Issues: the Process of EU Enlargement in the 2020s

Abstract

The Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, has reshaped the enlargement debate in the European Union, granting candidate status to three post-Soviet states (Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, and Georgia), as well as to the Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina, in the Western Balkans.  The European Union decision makers are currently working to devise a new enlargement framework, especially since they are dealing with candidate countries that currently display a relatively low level of preparedness for integration.

While the new security challenges, especially in Eastern Europe, have seemingly pushed aside earlier concerns about absorption capacity and enlargement fatigue, there are reasons to conclude that consensus building among the member-states will remain a difficult task. This contribution will assess the steps EU institutions and member-states have taken in order to create a positive environment for enlargement, even though there are strong reasons to believe that most of the candidate countries face long and difficult negotiations. It will also review the political and diplomatic initiatives by which EU leaders have tried to encourage the public opinion in the candidate countries to maintain its support for accession.