Since the Russian attack in late February 2022, the war in Ukraine has had profound and immediate effects on Europe. Within a short span of time, fundamental aspects and assumptions of the European contract have been redefined, and the European integration processes have accelerated dramatically in a number of core state- and policy areas. These include, amongst others, the military and security dimensions, energy dependence and transition to renewable sources, the prospect of enlargement and new accession processes and the external dimension at large. At the same time, certain recent developments have shown the limits of joint action.

This conference, organised in the framework of the Horizon 2020 CSA project Differentiation: Clustering Excellence (DiCE), seeks to answer a crucial question: is the war in Ukraine ultimately leading to a more unitary or a more differentiated EU? After a high-level keynote speech on day one, the second day comprises four roundtables on the above-mentioned key areas (security, energy, and enlargement-external differentiation).