Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine has elevated EU enlargement from a conditional bureaucratic procedure to an existential geostrategic imperative. This roundtable will tackle the structural dilemma of preparing the Union for a 30+ membership. Rather than viewing enlargement as a burden, we will discuss how to successfully integrate new members. Furthermore, the debate will shift to the generational dimension. We will evaluate the urgency of deploying progressive integration frameworks in the meantime to provide a tangible European horizon of security and dignity for the youth of candidate countries—who are currently defending European values on the front lines—while their full and merit-based accession is swiftly finalised.