Over the last year the EU’s enlargement process has seen the implementation of a new ‘gradual integration’ concept, allowing for some modest elements of single market access and additional funding before full accession, but conditional on a complex set of policy reforms.  

Intended to re-dynamise the enlargement process, which is constrained by very onerous decision-making rules in the Council, this concept adds a fresh layer of bureaucratic complexity to the system, without directly advancing the formal accession process. This goes against the European Commission’s new pledge to simplify policy regulations to boost the EU’s geopolitical influence.  

Additionally, several Member States are now specifically pushing the Commission to propose a way to simplify and streamline the enlargement process – but without saying how this might be done.  

Read the full publication by the Centre for European Policy Studies here.