June 04, 2025

Why EU Enlargement Is a Strategic Necessity for the United States

By: Nicholas Lokker

In her introductory piece for this series, Veronica Anghel made a compelling case for the European Union to treat enlargement as a strategic necessity. But enlargement is also a strategic necessity for the United States. Washington should recognise its stake in the process and use all available tools to help ensure its success.

For more than three quarters of a century, the United States has seen Europe’s fate as inseparable from its own. While the pivot of US foreign policy to the Indo-Pacific under Donald Trump’s administration means that Europe may not be Washington’s top regional priority, its importance for US security and prosperity will nonetheless remain. The success or failure of EU enlargement will have a major impact on each of these interests in the years to come.

Increased European prosperity is a net benefit to the United States.

As the European Union has progressively enlarged over the decades, so has the zone of stable peace in Europe. Going to war against each other has become unthinkable among the 27 member states and 450 million citizens now comprising the Union. Integrating current EU aspirants in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe will further bolster European security.

In the Western Balkans, where interethnic tensions have yet to fully subside, EU accession promises to act as 'glue' uniting the region’s different ethnic groups in a larger whole. Successful enlargement can also increase stability in the Western Balkans by helping to transform accession countries into full democracies, which are less likely to go to war with each other. Despite the problem of democratic backsliding among current EU members, the European Union retains very significant leverage in incentivising political reforms prior to accession.

Read the full article on The Loop.

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