000 02236nam a22003257u 4500
001 pwiiw7543
003 OSt
005 20260518120039.0
008 260323t2026 au ||||| |||| 00| ||eng d
040 _cOSt
041 _aeng
084 _aF15
_aF55
_aO52
_aP48
_aK33
_2jelc
100 1 _aSwoboda, Hannes
245 1 0 _aEU enlargement – Moving forward with pragmatism
260 _aWien :
_bWiener Institut für Internationale Wirtschaftsvergleiche (wiiw),
_c2026.
300 _a13 S.,
_b
_c30cm.
490 1 _awiiw Policy Notes and Reports
_v106
520 _aA 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.
650 _aEU enlargement
650 _aWestern Balkans
650 _aGradual integration
650 _aRule of law and conditionality
650 _aRussian aggression and hybrid threats
651 _aEuropean Union
651 _aWider Europe
690 _aMacroeconomic Analysis and Policy
830 0 _v106
_wWIIW0000092
_twiiw Policy Notes and Reports
856 4 0 _uhttps://wiiw.ac.at/p-7543.html
942 _cP
999 _c9163
_d9163