On 8-9 June 2023, the University of Agder hosted an international workshop, titled “Ukraine: A New EU Member State? From “Integration without Membership” to “Integration through War”. The Project Team organized the workshop as a step towards preparing the eponymous edited volume to be published with an international publishing house.
The aim of the workshop and the prospective book is to take stock of the dynamics of Ukraine’s thorny European integration path and addresses key challenges stemming from Ukraine’s unique situation of acquiring EU candidate country status amid the war with Russia. Thus, in their presentations workshop participants addressed an array of intriguing questions, such as: How can the reconstruction of Ukraine be coupled with EU accession negotiations? What can be done to avoid the accession negotiations with Ukraine to last decades like those with Turkey or the Western Balkans? How can the EU and Ukraine cooperate to strengthen regional security amid Russia’s assertiveness? In doing so, presenters brought together political science and legal perspectives, single-case, comparative and large-n research designs, and knowledge from different areas, including democratization, human rights, trade, environment and education.
As a follow-up to the workshop, the Project Team is currently consolidating individual feedback to presenters, who will continue working on their contributions in summer 2023. Detailed account of presenters and their contributions is available in the attached programme.