The 20th DRC Summer School on Regional Cooperation took place in Vienna the capital of Austria. The theme for 2025 was "Navigating the Future of EU Enlargement". The Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe (IDM) hosted the event. Participants not only met with guests and experts, but also presented their own research and engaged in group discussions and workshops.

The summer school programme was centred on four general topics related to EU enlargement:  

•  Shifting Geopolitical Realities 
•  Rethinking Enlargement 
•  Engaging Citizens 
•  Growing sustainably 

To discuss these issues, the summer school gathered a diverse group of 16 young students and scholars together: in total, they represented 11 countries from the Danube Region and beyond, as well as many different disciplines, ranging from political science and history to media studies and public policy.   

On the first day, the participants were welcomed to the IDM by Sebastian Schäffer, Director of the Institute and General Secretary of the DRC, and Sophia Beiter, IDM Research Associate and Charlemagne Prize Fellow. They expressed their gratitude to the participants for attending the event in Vienna and introduced the organizing institutes and the issues that would be discussed during the summer school. Together with Francesco Danieli, IDM Research Assistant, they wished the participants a fruitful week, both as an opportunity to learn more about EU enlargement and as an occasion to create friendships and a network for future collaborations. 

After the opening ceremony, Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu, former Prime Minister of Romania, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Director of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service, delivered his keynote lecture on maximizing the European Union's integration capacity.  The second lecture, which concluded the morning, was given by Zoltán Vörös, Associate Professor at the University of Pécs. With the title “EU in the International Arena,” his presentation described the current shift from a unipolar to a multipolar world and the challenges the EU faces. After lunch, the participants visited Erlebnis Europa Wien, where they enjoyed a two-hour simulation of the European Parliament. 

The following day, on Tuesday Professor Visnja Vukov from the University of Vienna presented a new lecture for the participants. It analysed the economic landscape of Eastern Europe, examining the role of the EU in its development and comparing the situation of EU member states with that of candidate countries. Then, there was the first session of the workshop “Citizens' Views on the Future of EU Enlargement” organised by Sophia Beiter in collaboration with Malwina Talik and Rebecca Thorne (IDM Research Associates) in the context of her Charlemagne Prize fellowship project. The participants, divided into three focus groups, were asked to discuss their ideal vision for the future European Union in 2035 with a special focus on EU enlargement and citizen engagement.

The discussion of these three research studies was followed by an intervention from IDM Director Sebastian Schäffer, who shared his perspective on the necessary reforms for EU enlargement with the participants. After that, Helena Stolnik Trenkic critically assessed the concept of “Democratic Pull Phenomenon” and discussed instrumentalisation and unintended consequences of EU enlargement in (former) Yugoslavia. Katarina Grkovic remained in the area to present on the role of collective memory in shaping the EU's approach to stabilitocracies in the Balkans. The last presentation by Gabriel Fernández Alonso was centered on the externalization of EU migration governance through enlargement conditionality in the Western Balkans, with a specific focus on Montenegro. In the afternoon the participants started the first round of presentations of their own research throughout the Participants Panel. Marta Beska analysed how enlargement became a strategic necessity for the European Union after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Vittoria Prestifilippo, instead, proposed rethinking the EU’s strategic response to Russian use of disinformation as a tool for information warfare. Finally, Lisa Sophie Jochens shared her comparative analysis of the rule of law in Hungary in 2004 and Serbia in 2024, explaining the implications the current situation has for Serbia´s accession process to the EU.

Wednesday began with a trip to the Donau-Auen National Park where the participants explored the Danube in a chaika. In the afternoon, the participants returned to IDM and had two lectures waiting for them: first, Teresa Stummer introduced IDM partner ARGE Donauländer and its work, and then Natascha Borozan did the same for the City of Vienna International Offices. 

On Thursday, 10 July, the day began with another practitioner, Katarina Pacher, who explained her role as Public Relations Officer of the EU Parliament Liaison Office in Austria, with a focus on fostering citizen participation in EU democracy. The discussion continued in the second part of the workshop, “Citizens' Views on the Future of EU Enlargement”, in which the participants finalized their vision for a desirable future for the European Union. The afternoon followed the same questions. 

 Friday, 11 July, was the final full day of activities for this year’s Summer School. The morning was reserved for a meeting with the Energy Community. At the organisation's premises, its team provided an overview of the Energy Community's work, followed by two talks on the role of renewables in addressing energy and environmental challenges during the enlargement process, and the issues of ensuring a just transition while addressing energy poverty. In the afternoon, Rebecca Thorne led the participants through an interactive session, in which they could choose to prepare a video or write a proposal on the environmental aspect of the enlargement. 

The last trio of participants’ presentations closed the academic section of the summer school. Ioannis Voskidis demonstrated through his study how Russian and Chinese energy investments influence the harmonization of the EU energy acquis in Serbia. Giannis Ilkos followed by explaining how the European Media Freedom Act contributes to forging democratic resilience in candidate states. To conclude, Mikhaella Bunda moved our focus to a specific case study, presenting Georgia’s path to the European Union.

As the day came to an end, the organisers, Sophia Beiter and Francesco Danieli, delivered their closing remarks, thanking all participants for contributing to making this year’s edition unique. Following their words of appreciation, the attendees received their certificates of participation, serving as a well-deserved recognition of their involvement.