Beyond merit gaps and waiting rooms? EU enlargement in a geopolitical era
Lecture
Date
6 Nov 2026
Time
13:00 - 15:00
Location
Lecture Hall Sappören, Sprängkullsgatan 25
Number of seats
105
Participants
Frank Schimmelfennig (Professor of European Politics at ETH Zurich)
Good to know
The Centre for European Research (CERGU) cordially invites you to the very first annual Europa Lecture. The idea of holding an annual lecture featuring a dynamic and current figure from European studies, research, or policy was hatched at a CERGU internal conference. This year the speaker will be Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor of European Politics at ETH Zurich.
Please find the abstract for Professor Schimmelfennig's lecture below. We hope you are able to attend!
Title: Beyond merit gaps and waiting rooms? EU enlargement in a geopolitical era
Abstract:
After a long period of stagnation, the EU enlargement process has been revitalized in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite the widely accepted geopolitical imperative of admitting neighboring countries as EU members, enlargement faces significant trade-offs and hurdles. For one, whereas geopolitical pressures have increased, the quality of democracy and the rule of law in candidate countries has not. To reconcile this “merit gap” with expectations of progress toward accession, the EU has upgraded the institutional status of candidate countries and created intermediate pre-accession benefits, while being reluctant to actually admit them as new members. Most accession hopefuls have been stuck in various “waiting rooms” for a long time. The lecture examines the trade-offs in the EU’s current enlargement policy and discusses various policy proposals for overcoming them.
This lecture will be held in English. Following the lecture, guests are welcome to stay and enjoy a fika outside of the lecture hall.
