How enlargement accomplishes European unity while changing its nature

20.500.12592/bx02r8

How enlargement accomplishes European unity while changing its nature

3 Feb 2023

The European Political Community is predicated on a remodelling of the Jacques Delors continent brought about by the war in Ukraine.1 Institute The war in Ukraine has pushed the issue of enlargement back to the forefront of the European political agenda. [...] Following the first enlargement in 1973, the history of the subsequent waves of accessions went hand-in-hand with the establishment of democracy on the continent. [...] At the other end of the continent, if the application of Georgia were accepted, it would raise the question of eligibility for membership for other Caucasus countries, although they are already members of the Council of Europe and of the new European Political Community (Armenia and Azerbaijan). [...] Although the EU, when defi- ning its relations with the rest of the world, had until now refrained from considering the continent in terms of influence pertaining to any power play in the way, the perspective of further enlargement including Ukraine, even in a far future, forces it to become geopolitical. [...] The number of European commissioners, raised for example by German Chancellor Scholz in his address on Europe given on 29 August 2022 in Prague, the new distribution between countries of MEPs, the number of whom is capped, and the efficiency of the decision-making process are among the other topics of reform that must be anticipated.
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8
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France