On 9 and 10 July, the Centre for Liberal Modernity organized the inter­na­tional confer­ence “EU Enlarge­ment — a geopo­lit­ical necessity and the next steps for the EU candidate states” with its partner orga­ni­za­tions in Tbilisi, Georgia.

In December 2024, the EU made a geopo­lit­ical decision and granted Georgia EU candidate status. In his policy brief, Sergi Kapanadze analyses what leverage the EU has to promote EU inte­gra­tion in Georgia and what signif­i­cance the upcoming parlia­men­tary elections have in this regard.

It is remark­able that Ukraine is making progress in imple­menting 7 EU Commis­sion prior­i­ties despite Russia’s ongoing war of aggres­sion. In his policy brief, Leonid Litra empha­sises why the EU enlarge­ment and deepening process should take place simul­ta­ne­ously and argues why the EU should start accession nego­ti­a­tions with Ukraine this year.

On the 8th of November the European Commis­sion will for the first time ever present an enlarge­ment report with recom­men­da­tions on Georgia. A few weeks later, the European Council will take a political decision on whether Georgia will be granted candidate status or will have to wait until autumn 2024. In his policy brief, Ivane Chkhik­vadze analyses the current state of EU reforms and makes concrete recom­men­da­tions for action.

The Moldovan expert, Denis Cenusa, analyses in his polcy brief that the Republic of Moldova has made progress in imple­menting the 9 prior­i­ties of the EU Commis­sion, but also points out the obstacles and short­com­ings, espe­cially in the area of the judiciary and the fight against corrup­tion. Never­the­less, he recom­mends that, given the geopo­lit­ical and strategic reasons, the EU should start accession nego­ti­a­tions with Ukraine and Moldova as well as with Georgia in December 2023.

Unlike Ukraine and Moldova, Georgia has not been given candidate status to EU-Member­ship in June 2022. In order to receive it, the country must fulfill twelve recom­men­da­tions of the EU Commis­sion, including reforms in the areas of deoli­garchiza­tion and anti-corrup­tion. In his policy brief, Sergi Kapanadze analyzes the current status in both areas and makes concrete recom­men­da­tions for action.

As part of our project “Eastern Part­ner­ship Plus” we publish a series of input papers on the topic: Per­spec­tives and Path­ways to EU Can­di­date Status for Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic...

The political crisis in Georgia continues after the municipal runoff elections. The close election result exac­er­bates the polar­iza­tion between the supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the opposition...

  On October 5, 2021, the Center Liberal Modernity held the public discus­sion on prior­i­ties for coop­er­a­tion with Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova under the Eastern Part­ner­ship Plus project. The discussion...

When Angela Merkel took office as German Chan­cellor in 2005, she was better prepared for the chal­lenges on the EU’s eastern border than any other West European head of government....

Online-Panel Discus­sion on October 6, 2020, with Gunther Krichbaum, Johannes Schraps, Renata Alt, Manuel Sarrazin und others.

As part of our project “Eastern Part­ner­ship 2.0” we publish a series of arti­cles about the three EU asso­ci­a­tion states. The authors from the region (Mikheil Benidze, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Victor Gotisan)...

In the LibMod policy paper: “The Eastern Partnership’s Missing Security Dimension” Gustav C. Gressel analyses the precar­ious security situation in the three EU associate countries and sheds light on EU...

As part of our project “Eastern Part­ner­ship 2.0” we publish a series of articles about the three EU asso­ci­a­tion states (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova). Three authors from the region (Veronika Movchan, Irina...