EuropeChats – Building a New Future for EU Enlargement | Discussion with Frank Schimmelfennig

This episode of EuropeChats is a discussion between Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor of European Politics at ETH Zürich, and TEPSA Executive Director Mariam Khotenashvili. The discussion focusses on building a new future for EU enlargement. With the accession agenda firmly in the foreground of European politics once again, thanks to the new candidacy of Ukraine and Moldova, it is more crucial than ever to explore the ins and outs of enlargement policy, and discuss how to improve it.

In particular, an in the context of potential future enlargement in the Western Balkans, the discussion focusses on the update to enlargement methodology which was made in 2020 for the purpose of reinvigorating the accession process for candidates in that region. In addition, Mariam and Frank discuss the thorny issues of the EU’s “absorption capacity”, the prospect of “staged accession”, and the costs of non-enlargement geopolitically, economically, and in terms of the EU’s internal functioning.

This episode is a discussion with Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig. Frank is Professor of European Politics and a member of the Center for Comparative and International Studies at ETH Zürich. He is a leading expert on all things EU integration, and a key protagonist in the current debate about the accession process and enlargement policy writ-large. His new book, “Integration and Differentiation in the European Union”, was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan.

EuropeChats is is the flagship podcast of TEPSA and it is part of the TEPSA Podcast Channel “Europe Speaks”

Music: Worakls, 22 September 2014, Salzburg, Hungry music

This video is co-funded by the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme of the European Union

Co-Funded by the European Union.