Guest Editorial: ''Accession through War' – Ukraine’s Road to the EU'

Abstract

Today’s geopolitical turbulences also require fundamental change in several traditional EU domestic and external policies, including primarily the EU enlargement process which Ukraine’s struggle brought back on top of the EU agenda.

In 2022, EU accession is being applied to boost the war effort of pro-European post-Soviet countries, and to enhance the potency of European common values when they are defended on the battlefield. It remains to be seen how the apparent tectonic shift in the EU approach, i.e. from a mostly “technocratic” accession exercise in recent years, to a value-based “accession through war”, will play out in the longer term.

Keywords: EU Accession, War in Ukraine, conditionality, EU Law