Enlargement returned to the forefront of the EU’s agenda as a geopolitical priority following Russia's illegal and unprovoked war against Ukraine. The European Commission’s political guidelines for 2024-2029 list enlargement as a geostrategic imperative. The EU faces two main challenges: it must, alongside internal reforms, balance the geopolitical imperative of supporting embattled states with the strict merit-based criteria of EU membership to ensure effective functioning with 35 member states, while also finding a way to integrate security-related policy issues into the enlargement process.
This hybrid Transatlantic Challenges Policy Dialogue will focus on the necessity of further enlargement to strengthen both European and transatlantic security, as well as assessing the main challenges and implications of non-enlargement.
Participation is open to EPC members only, the media, and EU officials