How can the EU enlargement process regain its lost momentum? And how can we learn from previous rounds of enlargement? These questions are answered by a group of authors together with EUROPEUM Institute senior researcher Jana Juzová in a new publication within the REWEU project.

With Ukraine’s defence against Russia heading toward a stalemate in the second half of the year and increased pressure inside the EU to deliver on its promises to provide the country with needed financial and military support, Serbia’s ambiguous relationship with Russia and the West has been brought increasingly into the spotlight in 2023. The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), ruling since 2012, and President Aleksandar Vučić have been responsible for continued democratic backsliding and have failed to align with the Union’s foreign policy during Serbia’s lengthy EU accession process, pushing the situation closer towards a tipping point in Serbia-EU relations. Senior researcher at EUROPEUM Institute, Jana Juzová, describes this in more detail in her article for the European Institute of the Mediterranean.

How to improve the EU enlargement process? How to ensure that the democratising effect of the accession process is sustained beyond the eventual accession to the EU? And are EU institutional reforms a necessary condition for EU enlargement? Answers to these and other questions are offered by the EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy's contribution to the National Convention on the EU's roundtable on Balkans, Turkey or Ukraine: the future of enlargement policy in the context of institutional settings.

Discussions on further changes to the enlargement methodology may reinforce the image of EU membership as a moving target with constantly changing rules, especially as the current methodology has still not been fully applied. Within the framework of the current methodology, the European Commission should develop a new strategy that would specify its approach to the gradual integration of (potential) candidates into the EU and the conditions governing this process. The 2018 Western Balkans Strategy set out initiatives, some of which are still valid today and can serve as the basis for a new enlargement strategy. Writes Jana Juzová, Senior Research Fellow.

A new policy paper, produced with the support of the Visegrad Fund project, analyses the views of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary on the further enlargement of the European Union. With the granting of candidate status to Moldova and Ukraine and the recognition of Georgia as a potential candidate in June 2022, the issue of reforming the EU accession process is becoming absolutely crucial and, in the context of the war in Ukraine, a divisive issue for the V4 countries. The authors of the publication are Jana Juzová, Ferenc Németh, Tomáš Strážay and Marta Szpala.

In this paper, Jana Juzová, together with Žiga Faktor and Constanza Celoria, are providing a comprehensive analysis of the proposals initiated by the think-tank community as well as the current initiatives and discussions at the EU level; they are identifying opportunities and areas where tangible progress can be achieved, and providing recommendations to policymakers on how to turn these concepts into reality in the foreseeable future.

Our Senior Research Fellow Jana Juzová and the Head of the Brussels Office Žiga Faktor have elaborated the recommendations resulting from the roundtable of the National Convention on the EU. You can find out what these recommendations are in the article.

Our Senior Research Fellow Jana Juzová, Associate Research Fellow Zuzana Kasáková and Head of the Brussels Office Žiga Faktor prepared the background material for the roundtable of the National Convention on the EU. The topic is "The European Political Community and its future potential". Three main questions are put to the roundtable: What potential does the European Political Community offer and how can it complement existing platforms and processes? In which areas of cooperation does the platform have the greatest potential and what should it focus on? What format and modus operandi would be most beneficial for the Platform to fulfil its purpose?

Discover Jana Juzová's article titled "To be or not to be: Czech Republic’s ambiguous attitude towards the 3SI" in the working paper series Anticipating the 2023 Three Seas Initiative Bucharest Summit. Advancing the common agenda. Juzová, a senior researcher, provides valuable insights into the complexities of the Czech Republic's stance on the 3SI. Explore this thought-provoking analysis today to understand the dynamics surrounding this strategic initiative.

Our senior research fellow Jana Juzová and associate research fellow Zuzana Kasáková prepared a recommendation resulting from the round table discussion of the National Convention on the EU held on January 20, 2023 on the topic "Formats of regional cooperation from the perspective of the Czech Republic". The Convention produced recommendations based on the answers to the following questions: What position should the Visegrad Group have in Czech foreign policy? How should the Czech Republic approach other formats of regional cooperation in Central Europe? How should the Czech Republic use its involvement in European territorial cooperation?

Our senior researcher Jana Juzová and associate research fellow Zuzana Kasáková prepared background material for the Round Table of the National Convention on the EU on the topic of Regional Cooperation Formats from the Czech perspective. The Round Table is presented with three main questions: what position should the Visegrad Group have in Czech foreign policy? How should the Czech Republic approach other regional cooperation formats in Central Europe? How should the Czech Republic use its involvement in European territorial cooperation?

Our senior researcher Jana Juzová has written an analysis in which she describes the fact that EU enlargement policy and the EU's south-eastern and eastern neighborhood represent some of the most important areas of Czech foreign and European policy in the last two decades.