The European Union has long recognised enlargement as a geostrategic investment and Russia’s act of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022 brought back the imperative to widen the Union. However, the EU27 has been brief when detailing how it plans to reconcile a transformative enlargement process with a more effective EU of 30+ members.  
  
Like the two strands of the Union’s DNA, enlargement and internal EU reform are necessary and should be thought together. But where do we stand in the process towards widening and deepening? What are the Union’s potential strategic enlargement and reform options? Which options should the EU27 choose and how can they be implemented in practice? 

This hybrid Policy Dialogue will start with a speech by Commissioner Marta Kos. Subsequently, the authors of the new EPC publication A Test of Times: Permachange through enlargement and EU reform will present and discuss the findings and recommendations of their study, which seeks to inspire, promote and link the debates on how to widen and deepen European integration in the coming year.  

Participation is open to EPC members only, the media and EU officials