How to restore trust in the EU enlargement in the light of the contemporary challenges

Please accept our invitation to a public discussion focusing on the most important challenges and their implications to the process of the EU enlargement.
The EU integration process is facing several significant internal and external challenges - ranging from the Greek debt crisis and the upcoming UK referendum on EU membership to the migration crisis and a resurgent Russia - that must be confronted amid a complex political and economic backdrop.

From being a key transformative tool in Central and East European countries, praised for its effectiveness and long- term positive effects, the enlargement policy has become a second-order issue attracting much less interest from both the EU and its member states that some 10, 15 years ago. Although enlargement has not stopped altogether, it has considerably slowed down under highly unfavourable circumstances for further EU expansion. At the same time, a growing number of voices within the EU argue for a more gradual and cautious approach to enlargement or even for postponing the accession of candidate countries until all new member states have been fully “absorbed”. Fifteen years after being recognised as potential candidates for membership of the EU, some Western Balkan countries have not even applied for membership, while those more advanced have experienced major obstacles in the process. Will the recent Bosnia and Herzegovina's EU membership application and the opening of the two EU negotiation chapters with Serbia give a new impetus to the enlargement process? Where does this leave one of the EU's historically most successful policies – the enlargement policy - and how can credibility in this policy be restored?

Moderator

Christian Kvorning Lassen, Research fellow, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy  

Speakers

Štefan Füle, Czech diplomat, former Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy (February 2010 - October 2014)

Marko Stojic, FSS Masaryk University, Brno

Traian Urban, Metropolitan University, Prague

Program

14.00 – 14.30 Welcome coffee

14.30 – 14.45 Welcome and presentation of speakers

14.45 – 16.00 Evolution of the European enlargement project and current political and economic context

16.00 – 17.00 Open debate and questions

The debate takes place on Monday, March 21, from 14.00 to 17.00 at the European house (Jungmanova 24, Prague 1).

Please register here, or contact us via europeum@europeum.org.

Official invitation can be accessed through PDF button on the right. 

Marko Stojić
Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: European integration, EU enlargement, political parties in the Western Balkans, party-based Euroscepticism.

Christian Kvorning Lassen
Deputy Director & Head of Research

Expertise: Migration/European migration crisis, EU foreign policy, Scandinavian politics, populism, EU enlargement policy