As the EU weighs up the costs and benefits of offering fast-track accession to Ukraine, debate on how to leverage enlargement to the union’s benefit is heating up.

Discussions around the trade-offs required to facilitate accession have recurred since the earliest days of the European project. Should the potential security benefits of quickly enlarging to Ukraine outweigh the drawbacks of enlarging to a country currently at war? Might models of differentiated integration benefit other candidates knocking at the door of membership? Does the prospect of internal hurdles mean a smaller union would be better able to act coherently on the global stage?

To explore these questions and more, Carnegie Europe invites you to an online public discussion between Gerald Knaus, director of the European Stability Initiative, and Sylvie Goulard, professor of practice at SDA Bocconi, former deputy governor of the French Central Bank and former French minister of the armed forces. The discussion will be moderated by Carnegie Europe Director Rosa Balfour and forms part of Carnegie’s “Europe Head-to-Head” series.