The war in Ukraine is a powerful reason to enlarge—and improve—the EU
Ukraine, something akin to the sentiment that moved the EU’s founding fathers is stirring again. The talk now is of admitting as many as nine new members, including Ukraine. Joining the world’s most successful club of peaceful, prosperous democracies would set that war-ravaged country—and fellow aspirant members in the Western Balkans, Georgia and Moldova—on a new and promising path.
For the EU itself it would also be nothing short of historic, completing a grand continental union and marking the end of a process that started with victory over the Nazis. Bar one or two future applicants (perhaps one day including Britain), the shape of the EU would broadly be settled. But the way the EU works would have to change.
Expanding the EU from 27 to, say, 36 will be tricky. But after a long time when the idea of enlargement was dormant—Croatia, the most recent new entrant, joined a decade ago—it is back on the agenda. Leaders from across the continent, including aspiring new members, will meet in the Spanish city of Granada on October 5th.
The next day, those already in the club will lay out what reforms will be needed to keep the show running with more (and more diverse) members. An arduous process will follow. The applicants and the EU machine will both have to change.
A mooted date of 2030 for the completed enlargement is optimistic, but worth striving for. Leaders considering the union’s future shape should remember that enlargement has been its most successful policy. Grands projets like the euro, the single market and the regulation of tech giants matter, but much of their value comes from the fact that their scope extends beyond France and Germany to Finland, Greece, Slovakia and Spain.
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