A preparatory event ahead of the Europe Future Forum 2024 took place on April 16

The event featured high-level discussions between senior officials, diplomats and public policy experts, injecting fresh ideas to reinvigorate the enlargement project. 

Our initiative was supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland and was an opportunity to promote novel ideas for the upcoming Polish Presidency of the EU Council.

Throughout the meeting, we focused on the unintended consequences of the EU’s enlargement, as well as its security and economy. The critical conclusions concentrated on:

• Regaining credibility in the eyes of our partners and candidate countries
• Learning from previous mistakes and applying interdependent solutions for both Southern and Eastern Neighbourhood
• Overcoming procedural labyrinths and employing mechanisms which would facilitate accession talks
• Ushering connectivity: As much as we want to be a community of values, we also need to be a community of joint infrastructural projects: transportation, energy and climate. 

Discussions concluded with a summary by Jan Farfał, the author of our latest report, “Costs of Non-Enlargement“, published in collaboration with the ZEIT Foundation.

This event acted as a precursor to the Europe Future Forum and followed months of preparations focused on promoting the enlargement debate within a broad circle of policymakers. Organised in Warsaw, it followed discussions in Berlin and Brussels, contributing to our overall project of promoting strategic foresight for EU Enlargement and Neighbourhood.

The upcoming fully-fledged forums will inform future EU leadership and the general public about CEE perspectives on the cost of missed opportunities as well as other priority policies.

Photographer: Magda Pawluczuk