The European Enlargement as an Experience in Time Occupation

The article explores Ukraine’s accession process to the European Union (EU) as an experience in time occupation. The article answers the following research question: How has the von der Leyen European Commission discursively recontextualized the temporal politics of Ukrainian accession to the EU? The article argues that the von der Leyen European Commission has discursively recontextualized the temporal politics of Ukrainian accession to the EU by employing narrative and discursive strategies legitimizing the need to occupy the tempo of Ukrainian politics. Building on the Discourse-Historical Approach, this article discusses how the von der Leyen European Commission has discursively recontextualized its narratives on the politics of Ukrainian enlargement by employing a discourse grounded on the exceptionality of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the existential significance of the Russo-Ukrainian war regarding the EU, and the need to transform the tempo of the Ukrainian accession process. To understand such a process of discursive recontextualization, it is necessary to establish a relationship between time and space in a context of political exceptionality, which is transforming how the EU approaches its politics of enlargement.