Following the European Council’s June decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova candidate status and the European Commission’s October recommendation that Bosnia and Herzegovina be granted the same, a growing number of European countries are now on the accession track or, like Georgia and Kosovo, waiting in the wings. At the same time, the EU’s difficult relations with the likes of Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom continue, as do rule of law issues with current Member States. In the light of all this, a panel of distinguished experts on the enlargement process and such emerging concepts as staged accession and the European Political Community will examine how the EU could or should be re-thinking its neighbourhood.

Rosa Balfour, Director, Carnegie Europe, Associate Fellow, LSE IDEAS, Steering Committee member, Women in International Security Brussels (WIIS-Brussels); Sieglinde Gstöhl, Director, Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies, College of Europe, Bruges; Milena Lazarevic, Co-founder and Programme Director, European Policy Centre (CEP), Belgrade; Sir Michael Leigh, Academic Director, European Public Policy and Global Risk Masters, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies, Bologna, European Commission Director General for Enlargement 2006-2011; Pierre Vimont, Senior fellow, Carnegie Europe. French Permanent Representative to the EU 1999-2002, French Ambassador to the USA 2007-2010, Executive Secretary General, European External Action Service, 2010-2015; Martin Westlake (Moderator) Visiting Professor, College of Europe, Bruges, and European Institute at the LSE, London. Secretary General, European Economic and Social Committee 2008-2013