A comprehensive guide to the EU Enlargement Package

Brussels – The Enlargement Package is an annual set of documents outlining the European Commission’s approach to integrating potential new Member States. It covers officially recognised candidate countries (currently Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine) as well as potential candidates (currently only Kosovo).

At its core is the Enlargement Communication, a strategic document that reviews the key developments of the past year. It highlights progress made, challenges ahead, the socio-political state of the countries involved, and recommendations for advancing the accession process. Complementing the Communication are country-specific reports that provide a detailed assessment of each candidate’s progress and gaps, particularly in critical areas like the rule of law. These reports offer in-depth analyses of reforms, with tailored recommendations and guidelines for aligning with EU standards.

The origins of the Enlargement Package trace back to the late 1990s when the European Commission, under Jacques Santer’s leadership, took significant steps to formalise enlargement policy. This effort gave institutional momentum to the accession of 13 new member states (10 in 2004, two more in 2007, while Turkey remains in waiting). Although these documents were not initially referred to as “Packages” – a term that emerged in the early 2000s – they already followed the same structure: a comprehensive strategy (now the Enlargement Communication) paired with country-specific reports, whose format has remained largely consistent over time.

The EU’s most recent enlargement occurred in 2013 with Croatia’s accession. That same year saw Iceland’s final appearance in the Enlargement Package before it withdrew its application. Other countries like Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, and Bosnia and Herzegovina first featured in the reports in 2005, with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) joining a year later. The latest entrants to the Enlargement Package – Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine – were added in 2023, a milestone welcomed in Brussels as a much-needed revitalisation of a policy that had stagnated for nearly a decade.