The EU’s enlargement file: still lost in translation
The European Commission’s 2025 Enlargement Communication once again proves that Brussels never met a crisis it could not manage through footnotes. The language is dense, the tone procedural and the ambition safely contained within the margins of technocratic vocabulary. Benchmarks, clusters and screening reports pile up as if Europe could spreadsheet its way into strategic relevance.
For all the tougher wording on laggards and praise for reformers, the rhythm remains out of sync with the times. Enlargement moves at an administrative pace while history accelerates. Wars, populism, migration, technological revolutions and climate shocks are redrawing Europe’s map, yet the Union and its members still narrate them through templates better suited for regulatory audits than geopolitical transformation.
The loudest signal that European decision-making no longer matches the speed of events lies in what is missing. The long-promised pre-enlargement policy reviews – meant to examine the EU reforms needed to make further widening possible – have been quietly postponed again. Ursula von der Leyen, ever cautious not to irritate member states, seems reluctant to confront the hard questions: who pays, who decides and how a 30-plus-member Union should function in this new era. The Commission’s few lines on internal reform betray a fear of its own mandate.
The result is a document that measures progress without inspiring confidence. Europe calls enlargement a “geopolitical imperative” yet treats it as a technical file. Meeting the test of times requires courage, not calibration – political choices, not procedural comfort.
Until the Union learns to speak in actions rather than paragraphs, it will keep mistaking movement for momentum and policy language for purpose.
Corina Stratulat is Associate Director and Head of European Politics and Institutions Programme at the European Policy Centre.
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