The EU Enlargement Commissioner, Oliver Varhelyi, presented the Commission’s new enlargement methodology on February. Greeted with mixed responses, it takes into account some of the concerns and suggestions of the Member States, most specifically those of France, which effectively blocked the start of negotiations of Albania and North Macedonia last October.

While many Member States and officials from EU hopefuls have welcomed the new approach, some have described the changes as merely cosmetic ones, designed mainly to satisfy French President Emmanuel Macron and convince him to greenlight the opening of accession talks with the two Balkan countries in the coming months.

Whatever one may think about the methodology, however, the fundamental problems with EU enlargement policy in the Balkans have little to do with the methodology.

The biggest problem is the approach of the EU institutions and Member States towards this critical issue.