The EU’s executive on Tuesday, November 4th urged the bloc to move ahead with Ukraine’s membership push and slammed Georgia for “backsliding,” as Brussels unveiled its annual scorecard for countries seeking to join.
Ten countries are currently angling to join the club—though some, such as Turkey, are essentially frozen in their tracks.
Leading the pack of EU hopefuls are the Balkan duo Montenegro and Albania.
“Given the pace of some candidate countries, a successful enlargement is a realistic possibility within the coming years,” EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos told lawmakers. “The coming year will be a moment of truth for all candidate countries.”
Brussels says it wants the green light this year for Ukraine and Moldova to press on with formal negotiations, but Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán has been stalling on Kyiv’s bid.
“Amid the challenges caused by Russia’s war of aggression, Ukraine has demonstrated its commitment to its EU path, moving forward on key reforms,” Kos said. “It will be essential to sustain this momentum and prevent any risk of backsliding, in particular on anti-corruption,” she said.
Brussels warned against “backsliding” on anti-corruption efforts after Zelensky was forced to reverse moves to curb the independence of agencies tackling graft amid discontent from his European backers.
Montenegro says it wants to complete talks by the end of 2026, while Albania is pressing to wrap them up in 2027, and Ukraine and Moldova are eyeing 2028.
Even once a candidate country clears all negotiating hurdles, joining still requires unanimous support from the EU’s existing member states.
While there was positive feedback for some in the annual review, Kos said that “in Georgia, the situation has sharply deteriorated, with serious democratic backsliding.” The EU has already de facto halted the country’s bid.
Elsewhere, she said, the pace of reforms in Serbia “has slowed down significantly” despite the insistence from officials that Belgrade remains intent on joining.
