In this episode, Fredrik Erixon speaks with Tengiz Pkhaladze, Senior Fellow and Director of ECIPE’s Bridging Frontlines programme, about how the EU’s neighbouring regions have become the space where the Union’s geopolitical credibility is being tested in real time. They argue that Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, the Western Balkans, and the Black Sea region should be understood as one strategic frontier rather than as separate policy files. This is where questions of sovereignty, security, and geopolitical alignment are playing out most acutely.
Pkhaladze, author of the recent paper Europe’s Frontier Countries: The EU’s Geopolitical Test, highlights three structural weaknesses: fragmented policy tools, slow decision making, and unresolved conflict dynamics. While the EU has made progress through sharper strategic thinking, renewed enlargement momentum, and stronger defence initiatives, ambition still exceeds delivery. Until that gap is closed, others will continue to take advantage of it.
You can watch a video recording of this conversation here.
You can read a transcript here.
