The EU’s response to Ukraine’s quest for membership: Intergovernmental decision-making and the contingency of protean power

Thomas, D.C.

doi:doi:10.1057/s41295-025-00415-w

Few issues are more fundamental to a regional community than its policy on which states are eligible for membership, and thus the ultimate extent of its external frontier, with all its implications for collective decision-making and for flows of people, goods and money. Since Russia’s unforeseen full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the European Union has broken long-standing taboos and decision-making deadlocks on Kyiv’s eligibility for accession. These innovations laid the groundwork for a radical transformation of the community in the coming years. By tracing these recent decisions in detail and comparing them to the EU’s resistance to innovation following unforeseen developments in Ukraine in earlier decades, this paper sheds light on the dynamics of self-transformation through enlargement. It suggests that the EU’s protean power in this area is limited by its inability to innovate without achieving consensus among member states with varying preferences regarding the...Show moreFew issues are more fundamental to a regional community than its policy on which states are eligible for membership, and thus the ultimate extent of its external frontier, with all its implications for collective decision-making and for flows of people, goods and money. Since Russia’s unforeseen full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the European Union has broken long-standing taboos and decision-making deadlocks on Kyiv’s eligibility for accession. These innovations laid the groundwork for a radical transformation of the community in the coming years. By tracing these recent decisions in detail and comparing them to the EU’s resistance to innovation following unforeseen developments in Ukraine in earlier decades, this paper sheds light on the dynamics of self-transformation through enlargement. It suggests that the EU’s protean power in this area is limited by its inability to innovate without achieving consensus among member states with varying preferences regarding the reforms that will be needed to enable Ukrainian accession.Show less

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The EU’s response to Ukraine’s quest for membership: Intergovernmental decision-making and the contingency of protean power