This event is by invitation only
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has brought Europe into a new geopolitical era. With it, EU enlargement has risen to the top of the political agenda, but the process remains fraught with institutional gridlock due to the veto powers of states, diverging interests, security threats, and diverse democratic realities across candidate countries.
When it comes to EU enlargement, the EU faces a spectrum of volatile situations that demand tailored responses. For example, we’ve got Serbia and Georgia’s democratic backsliding despite civil society’s resistance and largely pro-European push. Moldova has succeeded against disinformation campaigns in its recent elections, yet anchoring itself to the EU remains a challenge.
Can EU enlargement remain an all-encompassing approach? Or should the EU tailor it to the specific political contexts? This would be a “differentiated democratic enlargement”, as coined by Prof. Richard Youngs.
Our Democracy Retreat will feature interventions from experts to tackle the following pressing questions:
- What tools does the EU have to support civil society in enlargement countries with authoritarian tendencies, reformist agendas, or states under martial law?
- Can democratic institutions in the Neighbourhood remain resilient while Russia continuously seeks to undermine them?
- Does the EU sufficiently differentiate between pluralistic democracies and backsliding states?
This Democracy Retreat is held on 27 November 2025 and co-organised by TEPSA and The Egmont Institute in the context of the Horizon Europe Project Networks for Democracy (Nets4Dem).
