’50 years of EU enlargement: from the past to the future’ 

To our students, do not miss the opportunity the European Parliamentary Research Service offers you (EPRS). The EPRS has the pleasure to invite you to its history and politics roundtable ’50 years of EU enlargement: from the past to the future’ that will be held online on 26 April 2023 at 13:30.

This event is focused on reflexing fifty years after the EU’s first round of enlargement. It explores the experiences of the EU’s first three accession countries – the UK, Ireland, and Denmark, who joined in 1973. After an opening statement by European Parliament Vice-President Michal Šimečka, three historians and political scientists will sketch out these countries’ expectations of membership, their accession narratives, and the realities of membership. Following this academic debate, MEP and former European Commissioner Danuta Hübner will connect the experience of the EU’s first enlargement with subsequent rounds of enlargement, especially the 2004-2007 ‘Eastern enlargement’, and reflect on the prospects for and issues surrounding any future EU enlargement process. Besides Vice-President Michal Šimečka and the former European Commissioner Danuta Hübner, the speakers include Brigid Laffan, Emeritus Professor, European University Institute (EUI); Piers LUDLOW, Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE); Morten RASMUSSEN, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen.

If you are interested in participating in this event, you can attend it live on Webex. No registration  needed. You can find more information on the EP Think Tank website. Lastly, if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact EPRS-events.