On 5th December, 2014, the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission hosted the conference „25 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain: achievements and challenges” in Brussels. MAXCAP co-coordinator Antoaneta Dimitrova, Leiden University, contributed to the round-table discussion on ‘The way to go: Current challenges of the integration and lessons for future enlargements’ by sharing insights from recent MAXCAP research. Read a short summary of the conference here.

The conference presented important insights of social sciences and humanities concerning the transformation process and formulated policy recommendations for deepening the integration of the European Union's Eastern and Western members or with regard to future enlargements. The speakers of the conference, whether contemporary political actors, researchers or representatives of many European institutions (like the European Parliament, European Economic and Social Committee, Committee of the Regions and European Commission) entered into genuine discussion about both the critical interpretation of and the lessons to learn from the quarter-century long transition and enlargement process. They also put in relief remarkable coherence in their approach to the worrying political and military developments in Ukraine and along the Eastern borders of the EU.