Roundtable “The Future of the European Union and its Enlargement: Does its Cohesion and Global Geopolitical Competitiveness Rely on Its Enlargement?”

Roundtable: “The Future of the European Union and its Enlargement: Does its Cohesion and Global Geopolitical Competitiveness Rely on Its Enlargement?” We are witnessing times when the European Commission labels itself and even once “politically neutral” programs (such as science and education) as geopolitical, its president speaks of Europe’s global competitiveness and raises the issue of enlargement among the priorities for such competitiveness (the Speech from Oct. 5th, Granada, Spain). After the Russian full-scale aggression on Ukraine of Feb. 24, 2022, the EU granted the candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, thus expanding the group of candidate states at the EU’s doorstep. Can Kosovo-Serbia become a source of instability for Europe, and can as a counterbalance, improved Macedonia-Bulgaria relations help in that sense. Will the expanded group of candidate states make a difference? How will the EU enlargement policy change? Can the EU soft power resolve regional conflicts? Panelists: - Juraj Marušiak, Research fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences - Spasimir Domaradzki, Ass. Professor at University of Warsaw and member of the editorial board of the Res Publica Nova - Gábor Egry, Director at the Institute of Political History-Budapest - Michal Vit, Assistant Professor at Metropolitan University Prague and a Senior fellow and Director of the Institute of Modern Development in Prague - Valentin Valkanov, Researcher at Human and Social Studies Foundation, Sofija - Risto Aleksovski, Junior Researcher at Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje