European Union leaders have said the bloc has to overhaul its own workings before it admits new countries, without committing themselves to a single institutional change or date.
The position was set out in the conclusions agreed at the European Council in Brussels on October 15, where heads of state and government held what was billed as a strategic discussion on enlargement and reform.
Both the Union and future member states had to be “ready at the time of accession”, the text said. Enlargement was presented as a geostrategic investment in peace, security, stability and prosperity, and as a way of narrowing economic gaps between countries.
Leaders said the EU should press ahead with its own reforms, define its long-term ambitions and settle questions about its priorities and its capacity to act, which they argued would reinforce European sovereignty.
They took note of the European Commission communication on preparing for a wider Union, presented on October 6, which floated gradual integration of candidates before full membership, safeguards written into accession treaties and wider use of qualified majority voting to limit national vetoes.
None of those ideas was endorsed. Ministers were asked only to analyse the document and carry the work forward, with no timetable attached.
The merit-based principle was restated, with each candidate advancing on the strength of its own progress. Every step still requires unanimity, which leaves any single member state able to stall a candidate at any point for reasons of its own.
The caution extended to the countries closest to the door. On Montenegro, the leaders welcomed the continuing work on the drafting of an accession treaty but dropped a reference, contained in an earlier draft, to closing the remaining negotiating chapters before the end of this year.
A line on finalising the treaty text as soon as possible was also cut. Podgorica has opened all 33 chapters and provisionally closed 21, and its government is still aiming for membership in 2028.
Progress elsewhere is slower. Albania closed its fourth chapter on October 13 and has 29 to go, while Ukraine and Moldova opened new clusters in the same week.
The Commission’s annual enlargement package, expected to set out accession roadmaps for the four frontrunners, has been put back to November 4.
