Keeping the European Momentum: Pan-European Study on EU Enlargement and Deepening

This event will be livestreamed here and on YouTube.

The European Union is at a crossroads, both in terms of its internal constitutional reform and the integration of new member states. Hence, deepening and enlargement are inseparably linked together. Finding solutions to both challenges will be the major task of the new legislative term of the European Parliament and Commission from 2024 to 2029. As the official think tank of the European People’s Party (EPP), the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies develops policy options for European decisionmakers and opinion leaders from a centre-right perspective. Having been the driving force behind past European integration and enlargement processes since the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957, the political family of the EPP feels a distinct obligation to shape the decisive next steps and lay a successful path ahead for a next-generation European Union.

Enlarging the European Union to gain more weight as a geopolitical actor and stabilise the endangered periphery by integrating neighbouring nations into the framework of the European Union is often mentioned as an argument in favour of opening “the club” to new members. At the same time, the rise of Eurosceptic parties shows a growing discontent with the Union’s current functioning and is blurring the prospect of an accelerated and successful enlargement process.

In the context of the European Election 2024 and the constitution of a New European Commission under Ursula von der Leyen, the Martens Centre commissioned Leuven-based Ipsos to conduct a data-driven survey across all EU-27 member states.

The main findings of this survey will be discussed and analysed during this event.