Ever wider Union or enduring enlargement fatigue? Discussing the chances and obstacles of the EU’s next round of enlargement

Public Session

03:00pm, 24th May 2024

Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2022 accelerated the development of the EU’s agency on the international stage and resurrected the EU’s enlargement as one of its main geopolitical mechanisms. In February 2022, a few days after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine, but also Moldova and Georgia, submitted its application for EU membership, and surprisingly quickly, by EU standards, it received candidate status in June 2022. In December 2023, the European Council opened accession talks with Ukraine, Moldova as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. Once again, enlargement policy is popular, and the EU accession of up to eight countries seems possible by the end of this decade. At the same time, the EU’s promises have been rhetorical or at least not binding. Currently, the accession process remains as tenacious as before, rendering it as challenging for the candidate states as before the debates on geopolitical enlargement. Additionally, this shift towards geopolitical enlargement raises questions about the feasibility of sustainable enlargement considering the institutional alterations that would come with the new member states and unresolved domestic issues in these countries, including the ongoing war and unsettled conflicts. This panel aims to critically discuss the previous mistakes made by the EU and third states and to enrich the discourse through realistic assessments by politicians from the EU, candidate states, and polity experts. Points of discussion include Budgetary Policy, Common Agricultural Policy, alignment with EU foreign policy, democracy and corruption, the mutual defence clause, bilateral conflicts of candidate states with third countries, and public opinion in third states towards the EU.

Moderated by Dr Alina Nychyk

Dr Alina Nychyk is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the European Politics Research Group at ETH Zurich. She studies the EU’s decision to grant Ukraine an EU candidate country status. Alina defended her PhD in Politics at the University of Manchester in April 2022.

Speakers

  • Viola von Cramon-Taubadel

    German politician Alliance 90/The Greens, MEP

    Viola von Cramon-Taubadel is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens. She is a member of the European Parliament since 2019. She previously represented Lower Saxony in the Bundestag, the German federal parliament, from 2009 to 2013. From 1992 to 1993, she was an Erasmus Scholar at Wye College in Kent Country followed by the Language and Study visit to Russia in 1993, traineeship in Voronezh and Belgorod within the World Bank Feasibility study project in 1994 and study visit to Estonia in 1995.

    In 1996, von Cramon was employed as an assistant to the Ukrainian Government within the economic-political project of German Government in Kyiv. She continued studies and graduated from University of Bonn in 1997 with a degree in Agricultural economics. From 1993 to 1996, parallel to her studies and professional activities, she lectured at Agra-Europe and other publishing houses.

    From 1997 to 2004 von Cramon was operating independent projects in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2006-2007 she attended lectures at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.

    Von Cramon has been a member of the Green Party since 2001. Von Cramon was a member of the German Bundestag from 2009 until 2013. Within her parliamentary group, she served as spokeswoman for the foreign relations of the European Union and sports. Besides that, she was also responsible for relations to China, Central Asia and the Eastern Partnership countries.

    From 2019, Viola von Cramon is a Member of the European Parliament, she has been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, she is the Parliament’s rapporteur on relations to the Western Balkans. She also joined the Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union in 2020.

    In addition to her committee assignments, von Cramon has been part of the Parliament's delegations to the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee, to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly and to Serbia.

  • Jovana Marović

    Member at Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group

    Jovana Marović is the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of European Affairs of the Government of Montenegro. Her entire professional and academic career is devoted to the European integration process of Montenegro and the Western Balkans. Jovana Marović (PhD, Faculty of Political Science Belgrade) also worked as an advisor for the EU in the multilateral department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro (2004-2007), an advisor for international relations and European integration in the Cabinet of the Mayor of Budva Municipality (2007-2008), the research coordinator at the Institute Alternative (think tank, 2010-2016), a special advisor to the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare (2016), the executive director of the Politikon Network (think tank, 2016-2021), and the vice president of the Civic Movement URA (2021-2022). Jovana has been a member of BiEPAG since 2015.

  • Richard Kraemer

    President of the US-Europe Alliance

    Richard Kraemer is president of the US-Europe Alliance and formerly a senior program officer for Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey at the National Endowment for Democracy. Richard previously oversaw projects at the Center for International Private Enterprise and earlier, taught and researched at the Jagellonian University in Poland. Richard is an affiliated expert of the Public International Law and Policy Group, having advised the governments of Georgia and Montenegro. He and his works have appeared in numerous international and U.S. media. Richard is a member of the New York State Bar Association and professionally proficient in Dari, Farsi, and Polish. He has a Bachelor of Arts from College of William and Mary and Juris Doctor from American University.