Special Lecture by Dr. Marek Neuman (Assistant Professor, European integration at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands)

About the speaker: Dr. Marek Neuman is an Assistant Professor in European integration at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. In both his teaching and his research, he focuses on the EU's relations with Eastern Europe (Russia in particular) and Central Asia. Besides that, he is interested in the role Central and Eastern European countries play in the shaping of EU (foreign) policy.

Date and Time: Nov. 17 (Thursday), 15:10 to 16:40

Place: Nakaniwa Conference Room, 1F Main Building, School of Letters  (中庭会議室、文学部本館一階)

Title: Ukrainian EU Membership: Nothing But Wishful Thinking?

Ever since the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the European Union has been good at dividing countries to its East into those that will eventually become members of the EU itself and into those that will be kept at arm's length by being offered enhanced cooperation but keeping EU membership as such off the table. Whereas the first group has received considerable assistance (technical and financial) to reform, the countries in the second group were grouped together in the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) as of 2004. Ukraine, having been an ENP member, has had its ambitions to become a full member of the EU crushed on multiple occasions over the past 18 years. Yet, this all changed in the aftermath of Russia's invasion into Ukraine in February 2022, after which Kiev (together with Moldova) had been offered EU candidate country status. How do we need to read this change in the EU's approach towards Ukraine? Is Kiev's EU membership now a done deal or is this nothing but a symbolic measure in times of war?