European Union Enlargement Forum
11.04.2024 / 14:00 | Aktualizováno: 12.04.2024 / 14:49
Experts and diplomats from EU member states and candidate countries gathered on Thursday, April 11 in Czernin Palace to discuss current issues of EU enlargement in the time of Russian aggression and changing geopolitical conditions.
On 11 April, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the EU Enlargement Forum in cooperation with EUROPEUM Institute. This event, which followed the forum organized during the Czech EU Presidency, was supported by the International Visegrad Fund and the European Commission under the Think Visegrad and (Re)uniting the East and West: Reflections on the 2004 EU Enlargement (REWEU) projects.
More than 60 think-tank experts and diplomats from 17 EU Member States, the Western Balkan countries, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, the European Commission and the European Parliament met in Prague. They aimed to reflect on the EU enlargement process on the 20th anniversary of the 2004 enlargement and in the context of the EU's current commitments to the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe. Discussion panels addressed several topical issues, e.g. the impact of EU enlargement on the EU's geopolitical footing, the accession of Ukraine under the attack, the concept of gradual integration of candidate countries, the resolution of bilateral disputes in the accession process, the risks associated with the possible failure of the enlargement process, and the EU's future strategic agenda.
The forum was opened by Deputy Foreign Minister Eduard Hulicius, who recalled that Czechia has always been among the friends of enlargement and emphasised the EU as a community of values. "We all want the enlarged EU to be solid internally and diverse at the same time. . The condition sine qua non for this to happen is that all members share the values of democracy, human rights, the rule of law and media plurality in accordance with the EU treaties.”