Project description
Rethinking EU enlargement for a diverse neighbourhood
As the EU prepares for enlargement, understanding why accession reforms succeed in some candidate countries but stall in others matters. The EU-funded OWN-EU project seeks to improve enlargement policy by examining the relationship between political ownership of reforms and the territorial capital available to candidate countries in the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans. Bringing together researchers, policymakers and citizens, it will analyse lessons from previous enlargement rounds while exploring how state capacity, territorial inequalities and development assets shape accession outcomes. Through comparative research, living labs, pilot actions and stakeholder engagement, the project will co-create evidence-based policy recommendations. By developing practical tools and differentiated approaches, it will support a more effective and inclusive enlargement process tailored to candidate countries’ needs and characteristics.
Objective
OWN-EU reframes enlargement strategies and policies for the Eastern Neighbourhood and Western Balkans (ENWB) by coupling lessons from past rounds with a novel analytical lens: the nexus between political ownership (behavioural, administrative and societal commitment to change) and territorial capital (human, institutional, infrastructural, social, environmental and geo-strategic assets). This framework recognizes the heterogeneity of ENWB candidates countries - different state capacities, territorial disparities, conflict legacies and connectivity gaps - and explains why identical conditionality yields divergent outcomes. Building a comparative evidence from previous enlargements, OWN-EU aims, thus, to examine and understand the role of such contrasts between and within candidate states in order to provide dynamic recommendations for how the EU should redesign its enlargement strategy and increase its effectiveness, while delivering differentiated approaches that take into account the characteristics of each candidate state. Evidence is co-produced with citizens and authorities by applying experiments (e.g. living Labs in candidate countries), pilots in EU members, surveys, focus groups, interviews, questionnaires. Transparent participation - foresight workshops, scenario debates, digital feedback loops - will facilitate the involvement of citizens and policy makers to actively engage in the evaluation and design of policies and to express their interest in enlargement and, respectively, accession to the EU. By coupling rigorous analytics with practical tools and inclusive engagement, OWN-EU equips EU and national actors to finely calibrate conditionality, target investments, anticipate risks and communicate clearly. The outcome is a differentiated, legitimate and citizen-backed enlargement strategy that accelerates democratic resilience and sustainable Europeanisation across a diverse ENWB.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project has not yet been classified with EuroSciVoc.
Be the first one to suggest relevant scientific fields and help us improve our classification service
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.2.2 - Culture, creativity and inclusive society
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
HORIZON.2.2.1 - Democracy and Governance
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL2-2025-01
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
700506 Iasi
Romania
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.