The European Union’s
(EU’s) enlargement policy no longer follows a single, rule-based trajectory but
is instead evolving into a dual-track system. On one side stands the formal
accession process, grounded in the Revised Enlargement Methodology (REM) and theoretically
operationalized through the Staged Accession Model (SAM). The model developed
by the European Policy Centre – Belgrade (CEP) and the Centre for European
Policy Studies (CEPS) offers a merit-based, cluster-driven framework intended
to restore credibility and predictability to the enlargement process. In
parallel, a second track has gained prominence, one that advances more swiftly
and is less constrained by institutional hurdles or political vetoes. This
alternative approach seems to focus on financial facilities and growth plans,
being framed as a form of gradual integration.
This article engages
critically with both tracks of the EU enlargement process, taking the Eastern
Partnership Trio and the Western Balkans as examples of countries actively
involved in each. The article moves from SAM’s clear operationalization and
strategic structure to the political ambiguity and inconsistencies in the
conditions applied across both tracks. It discusses what these tensions reveal
about the future of an increasingly improvised and fragmented EU enlargement
logic.