Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has a new "Eastern Question." How should the EU organize itself to contain Russia, and what kind of border should the EU have to the East? The geopolitical conflict on the EU's Eastern border has led the EU to offer Ukraine, Moldova, and, more recently, Georgia a clear European perspective. A similar invitation extended to the Western Balkans countries twenty years ago, as a direct consequence of the post-Yugoslav war, was sufficient at the time to stabilize Western and Eastern Balkans. Would this suffice now? While the debate has already started regarding the internal reforms that the EU needs to undertake to operate effectively after enlargement, fundamental questions remain about the EU’s present and future Eastern border. Is it a border separating ideologies, or civilizations? Can a sustainable border even be imagined? Far from being an unprecedented event since the Second World War, as it is often portrayed, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is just the latest post-Soviet succession war. This talk uses historical examples and lessons learned from the long, conflictual history of the Eastern border, before and after Communism, to add support to Emmanuel Macron’s vision that the European Union requires a change in paradigm to survive. Reconceptualizing the Eastern border, addressing the unfinished Soviet legacy, and coexisting alongside nationalist Russia do not fall within the usual framework and cannot be resolved using traditional EU foreign policy tools and roadmaps. Join us for the opening of this exercise in imagination!

This lecture has been organised by co-editors of the Journal of Common Market Studies Annual Review of the European Union: Gianfranco Baldini (University of Bologna), Elena Baracani (University of Bologna), and Sorina Soare (University of Florence)