{"id":10126,"date":"2025-11-11T09:40:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/0"},"modified":"2025-11-11T09:40:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T08:40:45","slug":"enlargement-package-2025-the-eu-is-focusing-on-new-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/enlargement-package-2025-the-eu-is-focusing-on-new-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"Enlargement Package 2025: The EU is Focusing on New Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"vgblk-rw-wrapper limit-wrapper\"><em><strong>The European Commission presented its annual Enlargement Package, which evaluates\u00a0 the progress of candidate countries and potential candidates on their path towards the European Union. It is clear that enlargement remains a central political goal of the EU.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The road to\u00a0 the EU membership is a clearly structured and performance-based process. Each country must meet specific political, economic, and legal criteria \u2013 including stable institutions, a functioning democracy, the rule of law, and respect for fundamental rights.<\/p>\n<p>Many candidate countries demonstrate that the European perspective continues to be a powerful driver of reform. <strong>Montenegro<\/strong> has shown particular ambition, having closed four additional negotiation chapters with aim\u00a0 to complete the accession process by 2026. <strong>Albania<\/strong> has also made significant progress and plans to finalize negotiations by 2027. <strong>Ukraine<\/strong> has shown strong reform commitment, is working systematically to open all negotiation chapters and striving to complete the accession process by 2028. Similarly, the <strong>Republic of Moldova<\/strong> is making progress; the first Moldova\u2013EU summit marked a new stage in its accession process, which is also expected to conclude by 2028.<\/p>\n<p>Other countries, however, face greater political challenges, such as <strong>Serbia<\/strong>, <strong>North Macedonia<\/strong>, and <strong>Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/strong>. Despite its importance as a partner, <strong>Turkey<\/strong> has been effectively at a standstill since 2018, as ongoing restrictions on democratic rights and judicial independence prevent progress. <strong>Georgia<\/strong>, according to the European Council\u2019s 2024 estimation, has also experienced setbacks in democracy and fundamental rights, leaving its accession prospects blocked. <strong>Kosovo<\/strong> is regarded as a potential candidate, but several EU member states still do not recognize it as an independent state. Key requirements remain political stability, continued reforms, and above all, the normalization of relations with Serbia.<\/p>\n<p>From the EU\u2019s perspective, enlargement is an investment in peace, stability, and prosperity. It strengthens the Union as a whole, making it more united and resilient \u2013 politically, economically, and socially.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- .vgblk-rw-wrapper --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Commission presented its annual Enlargement Package, which evaluates\u00a0 the progress of candidate countries and potential candidates on their path towards the European Union. It is clear that enlargement remains a central political goal of the EU. The road to\u00a0 the EU membership is a clearly structured and performance-based process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9000734,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[57],"class_list":["post-10126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9000734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aacc.co.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}