Dince the Treaty of Maastricht, Europe has become a subject of politicization marked by strong support and protests from national societies. A countless number of books and articles show that European construction can no longer be a simple matter for experts.
National political leaders therefore have no other choice but to explain themselves about Europe. The process of enlargement of the European Union (EU) to six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia), as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia , however, seems to completely contradict this observation.
Let us leave aside the case of Kosovo, as well as the complicated case of Turkey, whose negotiations are either frozen or have not started. But, for the other countries, regular work takes place between the European Union and the candidate countries, materialized by the negotiation of chapters.
Broadening and deepening, two separate processes
The candidate States are working, with more or less intense dynamism, to adapt their national legislation to entry into the European Union. They receive substantial funds for this purpose. One of them, Montenegro, proceeded, in the summer of 2024, to the interim closure of its chapters relating to the rule of law. Likewise, the Commission published, in October 2024, its annual strategic document on enlargement policy.
And yet, few if not any comments from political leaders and the press have been noticed on a subject so fundamental for the future of the European continent. Let us leave aside the old antiphon of opposing widening to deepening. No scientific evidence has ever demonstrated that successive past enlargements have slowed down the deepening of the European Union.
This theory of communicating vessels, which has always had a certain success in France, is used by political elites who do not like Europe or who dream of an impossible West European federation. If European construction is progressing without any great qualitative leap since the single currency project, it is first and foremost because the societies of the Member States have become more reticent. Broadening and deepening are clearly two separate processes.
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Source: Lemonde