Smart Resilience and EU Enlargement Policy

Abstract

The European Union’s enlargement policy is an ever-changing policy area. Today, its flexibility is illustrated by an ever more diverse set of entry rules. In the half-century since the first round of enlargement, the transposition of thousands of pages of legislation has been accompanied by the harmonisation of laws and the incorporation of other values, along with indicators of economic maturity. In the wake of the first two enlargements, the credibility of the European Union was under threat in the eyes of the political elite and society in the applicant countries, and reforms were introduced to avoid disillusionment. The sluggishness of enlargement in the Western Balkans and the aftermath of recent Russian aggression in Ukraine have redefined the course of enlargement policy with any significant acceleration yet to occur.