Areas of Expertise

  • EU and NATO enlargement 
  • Peace and conflict research
  • Human rights and national minorities
  • Western Balkans and post-Soviet conflict areas
  • Migration, asylum, and refugee issues (EU)

Short Bio

Nikola Xaviereff is a Research Fellow at DGAP’s Center for Order and Governance in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, where he focuses on EU enlargement policy and Germany’s foreign policy toward the Western Balkans, Moldova, and Ukraine. His research explores the political dynamics of EU accession, debates on enlargement across Europe, and broader geopolitical transformations.

Previously, he worked for the Democracy and Human Dignity Division of the Council of Europe and for the OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities. In Germany, he worked in the Bundestag and supported Ukrainian refugees in Berlin.

Xaviereff holds an MSc in international affairs from KU Leuven and an MSc in international migration and public policy from the London School of Economics. He is a TILN Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, an alumnus of the Manfred Wörner Seminar of the German Federal Ministry of Defense, and a GLOBSEC Young Leader.

Languages

English, German, Russian, Bosnian-Serbian-Croatian

 

[Last updated: September 2026]

Contributions

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hold a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany December 15, 2025.

On EU Enlargement, Germany Is Starting to Move

purchasable

The question of how to facilitate a membership of sorts for Ukraine means that the debate about EU enlargement is fast approaching a critical phase. Berlin is starting to become more flexible.

Milan Nič
Nikola Xaviereff
IPQ

Nikola Xaviereff

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