The European Union’s renewed enlargement momentum is exposing a growing challenge within the European Commission, as officials struggle to manage multiple accession processes simultaneously due to limited administrative capacity, according to a Euronews report citing sources familiar with the matter.
The Directorate-General for Enlargement and Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST), the Commission department responsible for overseeing enlargement policy, is facing increasing pressure as negotiations with several candidate countries accelerate.
Ironically, the strain stems from the success of the enlargement agenda itself. Over the past six months, the EU has closed more negotiating chapters than it did during the entire previous decade, significantly increasing the workload for officials responsible for accession talks.
Montenegro, currently considered the most advanced candidate, has entered the stage of drafting its Accession Treaty and aims to become the European Union’s 28th member by 2028. Albania is following closely behind and hopes to begin work on its own accession treaty early next year.
Preparing Montenegro’s accession has already required the European Commission to establish a dedicated task force, forcing the redistribution of staff, particularly officials working on other Western Balkan countries whose accession processes have progressed more slowly.
“It is not only the candidate countries that are struggling with the growing workload,” one EU official told Euronews on condition of anonymity. “The Commission has lost the institutional memory and expertise it had during the previous enlargement wave.”
The challenge is compounded by DG ENEST’s staffing structure. Like many Commission departments, it relies heavily on temporary contracts and has relatively few permanent officials, resulting in high staff turnover and limited institutional experience. Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, remains the last country to complete the accession process.
The Commission could soon face additional pressure if Iceland formally resumes its membership bid. Reykjavik has scheduled a referendum for August 29 to decide whether to restart its EU accession process. If approved, Brussels would need to establish another dedicated negotiating team to prepare Iceland’s Accession Treaty.
Ukraine and Moldova are also adding to the Commission’s workload. Both countries have recently opened two negotiating clusters, and politically there is strong momentum to launch the remaining four clusters before the end of the year. However, Hungary has advocated a more gradual approach, citing domestic political considerations.
Under the current enlargement methodology, no candidate country has ever opened all negotiating clusters simultaneously. Albania has advanced at an exceptionally rapid pace but still required more than a year to formally open all negotiation clusters.
Even while Hungary delayed Ukraine’s accession process politically, the Commission continued technical preparations through a process known as “frontloading,” allowing much of the groundwork to be completed in advance. Nevertheless, officials acknowledge that ambitions to move several accession processes forward simultaneously may soon encounter practical limits, both within EU institutions and among candidate countries.
Brussels officials increasingly recognize that advancing negotiations with multiple countries at the same time will require substantial reallocation of internal resources and revised institutional priorities.
Ukraine and Moldova are likewise facing capacity constraints, as neither country has previously managed accession negotiations or the extensive legal alignment required for EU membership.
The European Commission is not alone in facing these challenges. The Council of the European Union and member states are also strengthening their internal capacities to cope with the growing demands of the enlargement process.
Having made enlargement one of the central pillars of its foreign policy, the European Union now faces a critical test: demonstrating that it has the institutional resources necessary to match its political commitment to expanding the bloc, Euronews concluded.
