Bridging Security and Political Governance in Ukraine-EU Relations: How to Calibrate European Integration and Security Cooperation

The war of aggression by an imperialist nuclear power against Ukraine – simultaneously aimed at reshaping the European security order – has led the EU to abandon its previous distinction between neighbourhood and enlargement policies. Brussels is now pursuing broader enlargement as a strategy to position the Union as a more influential (security) actor in a world increasingly defined by geopolitical challenges. In this paper, we argue that Ukraine's EU accession process is unique in several key aspects and examine how this process should be navigated. We stress the importance of expanding the EU’s own scope of action and aligning security and integration strategies, while also accounting for the unpredictability of security cooperation with the United States.