In-between a dream and a nightmare? Assessing the impact of 'Wartime Politicisation' on EU enlargement policy after 2022

Abstract

The brutal start of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine in February 2022 had numerous unexpected consequences. One of them was that it brought enlargement back at the top of EU’s agenda. This was also followed by a revitalisation of EU's own internal dilemma between prioritising deepening or widening, together with the increasing contradictions between member states on how should enlargement proceed. It is thus relevant to assess whether this geopolitical shift had an overall positive or negative impact on the EU. In this context, the main aim of the article is to assess the various forms of ‘wartime politicisation’ between 2022 and 2024 among the main policy actors in EU's public sphere around the topic of advancing its enlargement policy. In end, the article demonstrates that ‘wartime politicisation’ can have both stabilizing and destabilizing effects on EU and discusses future avenues of research.