The war in Ukraine and its impact on EU enlargement and the EU’s eastern partnership

Abstract

With the outbreak of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine in February 2022, many observers and analysts have called for revamping of both the EU enlargement policy and the EU’s Eastern partnership (EaP). Indeed, the war confirmed that hard power and geopolitics mattered once again in Europe. This puts into question the role that the EU has tried to assign to itself as a normative if not a transformative power while showing new ambitions at a more geopolitical one.

By granting EU candidate status to Moldova and Ukraine in June 2022, the EU member states ended the fundamental difference between EU enlargement policy and the EU’s Eastern partnership in so far that the latter was not meant to lead to EU accession for the countries part of it.

This contribution argues that the combination between the two changes should lead to a complete revision of both policies. First the return of geopolitics and hard power calls into question the future of the EU ‘s role as a normative and transformative power. Second, the granting of the EU candidate status to Moldova and Ukraine raises questions as to the accession process for the Western Balkans.