The enlargement of the European Union

This week, important decisions on enlargement will be made. Serbia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Albania, which have all received by and large positive assessments by the Commission, hope for green light on moving forward on the EU track. This contribution, drawn from evidence submitted to the House of Lords, puts these upcoming decisions into a broader perspective, addressing experiences from the past, lessons learnt and not learnt in terms of processes and strategies, and the validity of the Copenhagen criteria and of the ‘absorption capacity’ issue.