The Neighbourhood: The EU’s enlargement reality check

How are enlargement reforms unfolding on the ground and what drives progress or stagnation? The 2025 Enlargement Package presents a mixed picture: Ukraine and Moldova are racing ahead, while Serbia and Georgia are lagging. The EU itself is struggling with internal divisions and reform fatigue.

This episode of The World Stage is part of The Neighbourhood series from the NUPI-led project Re-engage, produced by ECFR and co-published by ECFR and NUPI.

In this episode, ECFR's Jessica Hendrick is joined by Tiago Antunes, senior policy fellow with ECFR’s European Power programme, Leo Litra, visiting fellow at ECFR and senior fellow at Kyiv’s New Europe Center and Engjellushe Morina, senior policy fellow with ECFR’s European Security programme. Together, they discuss what this year’s enlargement report says about political will, institutional resilience and the everyday impact of enlargement.

How can the EU make conditionality more credible? Are EU reforms changing behaviour in governments, institutions and people’s lives? And how can Brussels keep the reform energy alive?

This episode was recorded on November 12th 2025. iIt's the second episode from the RE-ENGAGE podcast series The Neighbourhood, which unpacks how countries hoping to join the EU navigate political change and outside pressure, and what that means for Europe’s democracy and security. The podcast series is produced by ECFR, and co-published by ECFR and NUPI. The RE-ENGAGE project is led by NUPI, and is funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101132314.

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