Enlargement and reform for the EU: a geopolitical response?

During the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, the European Council approved the Granada Declaration, which stated that enlargement was a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability, and prosperity. It also asserted that, for this investment to pay off, both the European Union and its member states needed to be prepared for enlargement to become a reality—a message calling for internal EU reform.

There is no consensus on which is the main priority—enlargement or reform—or whether one can truly exist without the other. Nevertheless, various positions co-exist regarding the enlargement and reform of the EU. Some member states are willing to stretch the treaties to their limits in order to avoid reforms that could mean opening the treaties. Others believe that without deep reform, the EU cannot respond to current challenges, let alone with 30 or more members.

With the return of Donald Trump to the White House, maintaining the EU as a relevant player in global affairs has become a matter of survival and strategic interest. Both reform and enlargement could be seen as necessary conditions for achieving this. In this context, it is essential to relaunch the discussion on how to approach both processes and whether they should become priorities on the political agenda for this institutional cycle.

CIDOB seeks to build on the seminar about enlargement and reform held in Murcia during the Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU, and to analyse the current state of this debate within the Union. To this end, CIDOB will organise a closed-door seminar with representatives of the main EU think tanks to address the following questions: How should enlargement and reform be approached? Do both processes remain a priority on the political agenda? To what extent does the new geopolitical scenario make both processes a necessary condition for strengthening the EU’s global role?

Participants

Juan Arístegui Laborde

Subdirector General d'Assumptes Institucionals, Direcció General d'Integració i Coordinació d'Assumptes Generals de la UE, Secretaria d'Estat per a la Unió Europea, Ministeri d'Afers exteriors, Unió Europea i Cooperació

Pol Bargués

Investigador sènior i coordinador de recerca

Saskia Hollander

Responsable del programa UE i veïnatge, investigadora sènior, Clingendael

Florent Marciacq

Investigador associat de l'Institut Francès de Relacions Internacionals (IFRI); secretari general adjunt del Centre Austro-Francès per a l'Acostament a Europa (ÖFZ)

Ignacio Molina

Investigador principal, Real Instituto Elcano

Pol Morillas

Director

Ritsa Panagiotou

Investigadora sènior, Eliamep

Oszkár Roginer-Hofmeister

Director del Programa Global Europe, EUROPEUM Institute

Héctor Sánchez Margalef

Investigador principal

Melchior Szczepanik

Director de l'oficina de Brussel·les, PISM

Funda Tekin

Directora, IEP