A Renewed Enlargement Policy

Renew Europe strongly supports EU enlargement as a strategic investment in peace, security, democracy, and prosperity across the continent. Our MEPs lead enlargement efforts by sharing expertise and shaping the Parliament's stance on strategy and institutional impacts. The future of the European Union is inextricably linked to the successful integration of candidate and potential candidate countries, especially those in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe. Enlargement remains one of the EU’s most effective foreign policy tools, fostering stability, security, democratic transformation, respect for fundamental rights, the rule of law and economic convergence.

The long-term cost of non-enlargement far outweighs the financial and political complexities of admitting new members, as it risks creating geopolitical "grey zones" vulnerable to antagonistic foreign influence. Enlargement contributes to a stronger, more influential and prosperous European Union, capable of acting in its own interests and upholding its values in an increasingly multipolar international order. Enlargement must add value for both the EU and candidate states, prioritising the EU's internal stability.

Today’s enlargement agenda reflects a profoundly altered geopolitical landscape and growing security threats, Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and hybrid warfare in the EU’s neighborhood and global south, complex relations with the US, deepening instability in the Middle East, and China's expanding strategic reach have collectively created a world defined by great-power rivalry and resurgent nationalist competition. This environment is increasingly unstable economically, socially, and militarily, and is being further accelerated by unprecedented technological change. These factors not only reshape Europe’s security landscape but also highlight the strategic urgency of advancing EU enlargement, while simultaneously reinforcing the need for the Union to strengthen its internal cohesion and capacity to adapt.