Year: 2026
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union (EU) revived its enlargement process with unprecedented speed, driven by the security imperative to deter Russian aggression. While accelerated enlargement can strengthen Europe’s geopolitical position, it also risks upsetting the delicate balance the EU depends on to coordinate policies and sustain its common goods. Historically, the EU has managed tensions between deepening and widening—which have always been shaped by dissensus. This chapter examines how contemporary enlargement debates expose four intersecting forms of dissensus that test the EU’s ability to align strategic interests with its democratic foundations: normative dissensus emerges when diverging values and contested rule-of-law standards erode the credibility of conditionality; instrumental dissensus reflects tensions between treating enlargement as a security instrument and as a project of democratic consolidation; internal EU dissensus highlights member state rivalry and conflicting visions of the Union’s future; neighbourhood dissensus captures how candidate countries may resist, adapt, or subvert EU conditions, fuelling autocratisation. By situating Ukraine and Moldova’s wartime candidacies alongside the long-stalled processes in Turkey and the Western Balkans, this chapter shows how these forms of dissensus challenge the EU’s enlargement model and its legitimacy as a liberal-democratic order.
Source: Springer eBooks
Author: Veronica Anghel
Institutions: College of Europe, European University Institute
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7204096761