Positioning candidate countries in the Euro-sphere: internet responses to European enlargement

ABSTRACTThe war in Ukraine has threatened our idea of peace and democracy. The European Union has been caught unprepared and, to show its opposition to Russia, has developed strict economic sanctions. A path to a possible candidacy of Ukraine to the EU is now open. However, the enlargement process has been silenced for a while and still, there are critiques due to ‘nasty’ member states that do not comply with the rule of law. Information online does not help in understanding the accession iter and the current situation. On the list of potential members, at pole position, we find the Western Balkans, which have been long pushed to join the EU and have already developed a huge network of international and European organizations. I will run a Social Network Analysis to outline the position of possible new member countries in the Eurozone according to the media.KEYWORDS: Social network analysisEuropean unionenlargementWestern Balkansmember statesEU-Balkan youth forum Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).