Analysis by Péter Pál Kránitz
The European Union’s enlargement policy is suffering from a credibility deficit. The EU has turned its back on its own criteria and made enlargement a plaything of geopolitics. While the Western Balkan countries have been waiting decades for their accession to progress, member states are trying to push through the admission of new candidates with unprecedented speed, ignoring rule of law and economic criteria. This two-speed enlargement policy is one of the reasons why EU skepticism in the Western Balkans is growing rapidly and why candidate countries are moving closer to their Russian and other Eastern partners. The EU crossed all previous boundaries when it attempted to cancel the results of parliamentary elections in Georgia, one of the candidate countries. The interference of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Georgia, applying double standards on the rule of law, sets a dangerous precedent that could alienate EU candidate countries from the European community and poses unforeseeable geopolitical risks.
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