Veronica Anghel

The major security threat caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War has regenerated the stagnating EU enlargement agenda. Europeans have been here before. The atrocities that unfolded during the Balkan wars shocked the EU into reconsidering its post-1989 slow enlargement policy. The similarities between the determinants of EU decision-making outputs in the context of the 1990s and those that underscore current EU policy-making seem striking. The EU is likely to once again follow a pattern of failing forward to protect its own security and stability, albeit fragile and temporary. In so doing, a wider EU is not sure to be the preferred outcome for its leaders. This research project aims to assess (1) the chances of EU enlargement given lessons learned from its recent history, and (2) the impact of the war in Ukraine on key elements of European integration.

The research is based on the assumption that the characteristic evolution of political and administrative state-run systems in Central and Eastern Europe (i.e. structural reform social and economic processes, specifics of social and political interactions) is funded on long-term historical evolutions and processes that go well beyond the communist experience, into the period of nation-states formation (mid 19th c.). It aims at uncovering divergent and discontinuous projects of modernization, leading to unaccomplished structural reformation and adaptation to contemporary Western standards and expectations. Research team: Univ. Prof. Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu Ph.D. hab., Ph.D.h.c. (IWM Visiting Fellow), Veronica Anghel MA PolSci (IWM Junior Visiting Fellow), Univ. Prof. Bogdan Murgescu Ph.D. hab. (University of Bucharest, Romania), Univ. Prof. Lucian Leustean Ph.D. hab. (University of Iasi, Romania) et.al. The project is funded by Iulius Management Center, Iași.