The Template for Staged Accession to the EU was first published in the autumn of 2021, following the European Commission’s publication of the revised enlargement methodology and the persistently stagnating accession process of the Western Balkan countries. The necessity to adapt EU enlargement policy has become ever more pronounced since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The geopolitical imperative for EU enlargement has prompted numerous proposals but ‘Staged Accession’ remains the only model which provides a predictable way forward for all present and future membership candidates in parallel with internal reforms aimed at smooth functioning of an enlarged EU.

Emerging from wide-ranging consultations and a series of issue papers that delved into the specific elements of the Model, this revised Template 2.0 presents a comprehensive proposal on how to amend the EU’s current accession policy. It presents the overall structure of the Staged Accession Model, with new specifications on the EU’s ‘fundamentals first’ approach. It lays out the ‘essential elements’ of the proposal, which the authors consider the bare minimum a new enlargement policy revision would need to entail to achieve the Model’s objectives. It unpacks the two pre-accession stages and the benefits of gradual institutional participation as well as increased funding proposed to (potential) candidates as incentives to press on with the most difficult fundamental reforms. The EU needs to use the momentum carefully to ensure that candidates go through a merit-based and predictable process, which will guarantee more reforms are rewarded with more benefits, while stagnation and backsliding are met with appropriate measures and reversibility in the integration process. The special arrangements of the Stage 3 ‘New Member State’ regime are detailed as well as the transition into the fourth and final stage envisaging conventional EU membership. Ideas on advanced sectoral integration (i.e. vertical ‘phasing-in’) and their possible relationship with the horizontal approach of the Staged Accession Model are also analysed.

Finally, the paper reviews the proposals for innovating the overall governance of the EU’s enlargement policy. Template 2.0 concludes by making important recommendations to the EU institutions, Member States and candidates that ought to be considered if the EU is to avoid missing another chance to restore the credibility and effectiveness of its once most successful foreign policy. Such proposals should be advanced in October 2023, at the latest, as part of the Commission’s next ‘Enlargement Package,’ with a view to agreement at the European Council’s December 2023 meeting.

Članak Template 2.0 for Staged Accession to the EU se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

Several ongoing sectoral initiatives can be helpful in preparing compliance with the EU acquis, including cooperative initiatives in the case of the Western Balkans for the Regional Common Market, and the green and digital agendas. Yet, these are not formal parts of the accession process, and should not be substitutes to it.

The lists of EU policy sectors that candidate states could apply before accession covers virtually all the clusters of the formal enlargement process, irrespective of whether these have been ‘opened’ or not. This can cause confusion over the EU’s effective enlargement policy, and in any case highlights the current stagnation of the formal enlargement process for the Western Balkans.

In conclusion, advanced sectoral integration can be a positive complement to the official enlargement methodology, but not an alternative to its reform as proposed under the Staged Accession model. Indeed the ‘gradual’ or ‘sectoral’ approach sees no systematic application of the principle of conditionality with regard to the ‘fundamentals’ of the enlargement process (respect for democracy, the rule of law, and justice sector reform), which highlights that the approach can hardly be touted as enhancing accession in a holistic and predictable fashion. On the contrary this approach may be viewed by some of its proponents as an alternative to enlargement, or as some kind of compensation for its lack of progress.

This paper is published as a part of the ‘Support for further development of the model of the Western Balkans staged accession to the European Union’, a collaboration between CEPS and the European Policy Centre (CEP), based in Belgrade.

Članak Sectoral policy integration in advance of accession: An alternative or complement to the Staged Accession model? se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.

By building upon the revised enlargement methodology, the idea is to deliver more benefits for citizens and provide greater incentives for political elites to engage in reforms in the candidate countries already during the pre-accession stages. In addition, it addresses concerns about the difficulties of decision-making in an enlarged but unreformed Union by introducing temporary institutional limitations and enhanced post-accession monitoring for new member states. This is to ensure that the enlargement can take place even if the EU’s internal reforms remain unfinished by the time a candidate country fulfils accession requirements. With such arrangements, the Model encourages simultaneous deepening and widening of the Union, without necessarily conditioning the latter with the former.

Acknowledging the importance of reaching consensus on this matter, the Template calls for political leaders in both the EU and the Western Balkans to signal their interest in this idea in order to stimulate a policy debate and work towards defining a formal proposal.

Članak A Template for Staged Accession to the EU se pojavljuje prvo na European Policy Centre.