As the only European Union institution with a direct right of legal initiative, the European Commission proved to be a significant political actor and agenda-setter in the institutional system of the European Union. It is the president of the European Commission whose political leadership has a direct leverage on shaping EU agenda on a wide range of policies. At the same time the research on EU political leadership has been a "niche area" in the field of political leadership (Dinan, 2017). Therefore this contribution aims at exploring the leadership performance of two European Commission’s presidents, Jean-Claude Junker and Ursula von der Leyen, on the the enlargement policy agenda-setting.
Given research focus appears to be of particular significance in context of the 2023 Enlargement agenda that has illustrated a political will of European Commission to bring the issue of enlargement back to the table of the EU political discussion on both, supranational and intergovernmental, levels. Such discussion, however, illustrated not only common vision but also the different interests of member states that directly impact the outcome of planned reform and pose a question on sustainability of achieved "commonality of purpose" (Mauer et al., 2023) among EU institutions and member states.
Drawing on analysis of political discourses of two European Commission presidents and substance of their political agendas on enlargement this proposal makes an attempt to answer a question whether the EU might become a transformative structural power in supporting the democratic resilience in its eastern neighbourhood. In the meantime, the major focus is put on the Ukrainian case as a trigger of the EU eastern policy change and the transformation of the EU leadership (from transactional to transformational) in light of Russian full-scale invasion.
