Enlargement Negotiations

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the EU’s enlargement rounds to date, highlighting how the negotiating process and dynamics have developed over time. It demonstrates how the EU negotiating agent, which is based within DG NEAR of the European Commission, is now constrained by four sets of principals during accession negotiations—the College of Commissioners, the Council, the European Council, and the European Parliament. Through a two-level game-based case study of the ongoing accession negotiations with the Western Balkans, focusing mainly on Montenegro and Serbia, it demonstrates how the negotiating agents—the DG NEAR Teams—find themselves in a tight two-level game, where their autonomy is severely restricted by some of their principals at Level Two, and where they are facing increasing difficulties in supporting the candidates to meet the accession criteria at Level One. While the DG NEAR Teams have to finely balance their dual role as both ally and critic of the candidates, they can use this duality strategically to progress the negotiations both at Level Two and Level One.