Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén

Magdalena Frennhoff Larsén is Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. She teaches European Union studies and her main research interests are in the areas of European Union external relations, European Union governance, and international negotiations.

M. Frennhoff Larsén is a regular media commentator, and she has worked with media outlets including the BBC, Deutsche Welle, France 24, Huffington Post, Open Democracy, PMP Magazine, Social Europe, The Conversation, and the UK in a Changing Europe. She holds a PhD from the University of Westminster. Prior to moving into academia, she worked as Development Director for the Institutor for Citizenship and as Public Affairs Officer for the UK Office of the European Parliament.

The project

Title: Politicisation and Polarisation: The Role of the European Parliament in EU Enlargement

"European Union enlargement is considered one of the biggest achievements of the European integration project, and it is often described as the European Union’s most successful foreign policy. However, following the Eastern enlargement, enlargement slipped down the European Union agenda, and support for progressing and opening new accession negotiations waned across the European Union. The main reasons for this stagnation in the enlargement process include a general enlargement fatigue across the EU and concerns about the European Union’s integration capacity. Enlargement has become increasingly politicised and polarised, and member states have used their veto powers to block the accession process for reasons not directly related to the pace of the reform process in the candidate countries, but as a way of expressing concerns about specific bilateral political disputes with candidate countries, or to cater to domestic audiences where opposition to enlargement is high. Yet, since the start of the war in Ukraine, which overturned the European security order, the European Union has expressed a renewed commitment to enlargement. In the summer of 2022, the European Council granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova with unprecedented speed, and expressed its readiness to grant candidate status to Georgia once it has met certain criteria. At the same time the European Union leaders called for an acceleration of the enlargement process to the Western Balkans, and in December of 2022 Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted candidate status."

Hosting institution: Sciences Po

Selective Bibliography

• Frennhoff Larsén, M.  (2023) The EU in International Negotiations (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Frennhoff Larsén, M. (2023) ‘Enlargement, Treaty Reform and Economic Crisis’ in Reinventing Europe, B. Leucht, K. Seidel and L. Warlouzet (eds) (Bloomsbury)
• Frennhoff Larsén, M. and Khorana, S. (2020) ‘Negotiating Brexit: A Clash of Approaches’ Comparative European Politics 18 (5): 858-877
• Frennhoff Larsén, M. (2020) ‘Parliamentary Influence Ten Years after Lisbon: EU Trade Negotiations with Japan’ Journal of Common Market Studies 58 (6): 1540-1557
• Frennhoff Larsén, M. (2017) ‘The Increasing Power of the European Parliament: Negotiating the EU-India Free Trade Agreement’ International Negotiation 22 (3): 473-498