The war in Ukraine and its impact on EU enlargement and the EU’s eastern partnership
Journal: Papers from the International Scientific Conference of the European Studies Department Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Faculty of Philosophy at Sofia University “St Kliment Ohridski”
Year: 2025

With the outbreak of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine in February 2022, many observers and analysts have called for revamping of both the EU enlargement policy and the EU’s Eastern partnership (EaP). Indeed, the war confirmed that hard power and geopolitics mattered once again in Europe. This puts into question the role that the EU has tried to assign to itself as a normative if not a transformative power while showing new ambitions at a more geopolitical one. By granting EU candidate sta