This paper aims at taking stock of the various multilateral formats and cooperation efforts in Central and Eastern Europe, where Ukraine is either a participant or an aspiring country. While the EU (and partially NATO) has been the dominant force in the region, it has not been the only game in town. Moreover, some of the formats, discussed in the paper, emerged precisely to compensate for the EU’s inability to fill in the security vacuum, which Ukraine felt it found itself in.

Eventually, the paper provides for a comprehensive account of opportunities for Ukraine and the EU and all other parties interested in further upscaling the cooperation and promoting closer integration of Ukraine within the Euro-Atlantic community. The granting of EU candidacy status to Ukraine in June 2022 provided a new impetus for this.

The authors of the policy paper are Pavel Havlíček together with Alisa Muzergues and it was published by the Zentrum Liberale Moderne.