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Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 has brought EU enlargement back as a priority of the EU policy towards the neighbourhood and as a geopolitical tool to ensure peace, stability and prosperity on the entire continent. That resulted in the EU recognising the aspiration of the Associated Trio countries to join the EU and granting membership candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova in 2022 and to Georgia in 2023. In record time, the former two countries also started the EU accession process in June 2024. The accession process of the candidates from the Western Balkans also accelerated. Bosnia and Hercegovina was granted the candidacy status and accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia started in 2022. However, despite the general consensus that enlargement is a geopolitical necessity, the question posed by French President Emmanuel Macron in Bratislava in 2023 – How should we do it? – still remains unanswered. Writes Marta Szpala, a Senior Fellow in the Central European Department at the Center for Eastern Studies.
20. March 2025
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