About: enlargement negotiations

Will Brussels turn its back – again – on the Balkans?

Will the EU honour its word to Tirana and Skopje or will Brussels – not for the first time – leave the Western Balkans stewing in its own juice? All eyes are on the reaction of EU foreign ministers to last week's inflammatory rhetoric by two Balkan leaders, writes Denis MacShane.

Montenegro is not the EU poster child it claims to be

The European Commission’s latest progress report on enlargement shows growing frustration at Montenegro’s sclerotic progress and what can only be interpreted as window-dressing to receive a good scorecard, writes Dr Matthias Menke.

Negotiations with Serbia can pull neighbouring states into accession swirl

Last week’s release of the annual EU progress reports on the Western Balkans and Turkey brings the EU’s accession policies back into the international spotlight. The prospect of starting membership negotiations with the EU has led to positive political developments and more stability in the Balkans, Dominik Tolksdorf writes.

Iceland: Coming in from the cold

"Iceland's politicians need to conduct an open and transparent debate with the public and with the interest groups concerned, so that the final decision [on whether to join the European Union] is taken on the basis of the best possible information about the EU and what membership means," wrote Graham Avery, a senior advisor at the European Policy Centre, in a September analysis.

The West Balkans: Between the EU, the USA and Russia

"The realisation of the South Stream project would help consolidate EU-Russian co-operation in the West Balkans," writes Dušan Relji?, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, in an August paper.

Iceland’s path to EU membership may be a rocky one

The Icelandic parliament's recent vote "to apply for membership [of the European Union] was a close run thing – 33 in favour, 28 against – and it would certainly be wrong to underestimate the negotiating difficulties which lie ahead," writes Michael Berendt, a former European Commission official and current public affairs advisor, in a July post on Blogactiv.

Privileged partnership offers Turkey neither privilege nor partnership

Talk of a privileged partnership between the EU and Turkey "looks more and more like a scapegoat for popular European fears about jobs, immigration and Islam," writes Hugh Pope, a project director at the International Crisis Group, in a June paper.

The cost of no Turkey

"When Turkey is admitted as a member of the EU, the new Union will be in a much better position to project open society values in the world," writes Hakan Altinay, executive director of the Open Society Foundation, in a May paper.

The EU will want more from Serbia than arrests

While the arrest of accused war criminal Radovan Karadzic on 21 July could signal the beginning of Serbia's reconciliation with its role in the Western Balkan wars of the 1990s, Kosovo could still prove a stumbling block for further EU negotiations, argues Tomas Valasek in a 25 July commentary for the Centre for European Reform.

Turkey: Heading for normalisation or breakdown?

The recent political and societal tensions in Turkey are necessary and unavoidable steps on the road to the normalisation of democracy, writes Senem Aydin Düzgit in a 6 July commentary for the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).

Serbia’s European choice

Serbia has to adapt to the EU and not the other way round if it wants to become a member, argues David Gowan in a June 2007 paper for the Centre for European Reform (CER).

Serbia’s New Government: Turning From Europe

The West should prepare for Serbia to turn increasingly away from Europe and towards Moscow, argues a 31 May report from the International Crisis Group (ICG). The group is convinced that the new government will choose Kosovo over Europe, and that appeasement would weaken rather than strengthen pro-Western forces.

Turkey divided: Politics, faith and democracy

The political crisis in Turkey reflects a clash of definition over the very nature of the country, writes Gunes Murat Tezcur in an article for Open Democracy.