02236nam a22003257u 4500 pwiiw7543 OSt 20260518120039.0 260323t2026 au ||||| |||| 00| ||eng d OSt eng F15 F55 O52 P48 K33 jelc Swoboda, Hannes EU enlargement – Moving forward with pragmatism Wien : Wiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw), 2026. 13 S., 30cm. wiiw Policy Notes and Reports 106 A credible EU enlargement policy remains necessary from a geopolitical perspective, but can only succeed through a more pragmatic and gradual integration approach. New members amplify the existing challenges to EU decision making, rule-of-law conditionality and political cohesion, particularly given the circumstances of Russian aggression, hybrid threats and rising nationalist and far-right forces within the Union. Against this backdrop, the highly heterogeneous situations of the Western Balkan states, Ukraine, Moldova and other candidate countries, the unresolved bilateral conflicts, domestic polarisation and relative poverty all shape public scepticism in current member states. This paper rejects ‘buffer-zone’ concepts as a form of capitulation, and instead advocates stepwise integration into the single market, Schengen and selected policies, tied to verifiable reforms, reversible conditionality, and strengthened financial and political support. Such a model would allow differentiated, reversible accession pathways, while giving the EU time to reform its own institutions and decision-making rules, ensuring that enlargement reinforces, rather than undermines, the Union’s capacity to act and its foundational values. EU enlargement Western Balkans Gradual integration Rule of law and conditionality Russian aggression and hybrid threats European Union Wider Europe Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy 106 WIIW0000092 wiiw Policy Notes and Reports https://wiiw.ac.at/p-7543.html P 9163 9163 0 0 0 0 BIB BIB 1 2026-03-24 pwiiw7543 0 106 1000010007543 2026-03-24 00:00:00 2026-03-24 P