On Wednesday 6 March, Visegrad Insight, in cooperation with the Zeit Stiftung Bucerius, published a report explaining the consequences of enlargement failure and calling on the EU to understand these consequences in order to mobilise all its resources to ensure a positive outcome.
According to the report, the prospect of non-enlargement scenarios should be taken into account in emergency policy planning for the Union and neighbouring countries. In addition, EU policy planning should estimate cost-benefit ratios for each scenario in order to flush out real interests and minimise disinformation about enlargement.
At a time when the EU wants to reform itself ahead of a new enlargement, the document stresses that the accession process should not be conditional on the full policy preparedness of the existing bloc to accept a new member state, pointing out that no previous enlargement was prepared institutionally.
Visegrad Insight and the Zeit Stiftung Bucerius also consider that in order to improve EU-neighbourhood connectivity, the Union should use differentiated financial incentives and grant observer status in the EU Council and the European Parliament in order to promote successful enlargement and mitigate potential challenges.
They also promote post-enlargement conditionality, which will “expedite the enlargement process to neutralise security threats of foreign interference“ and allow newly admitted states to catch up with EU regulations.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/b5t (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)