Next Commissioner for Enlargement: Which criteria should inform the selection?

integration, it remains unclear whether the EU has the Therefore, the weakening of the pro-EU forces in Paris right tools to help the Balkans make progress on all those and Berlin likely means that the integration engine will fronts, and whether the region still has the political will lose steam in the foreseeable future.22 and stamina to reform in line with the conditions set. [...] From this perspective, the ability of the three new Eastern candidates to advance within two years to the point of opening accession talks with the EU – when it In the June EP vote, the far-right took more than a decade for some of the Balkan aspirants to achieve the same feat – was met with perplexity in the performed especially well in France region. [...] The Union’s strong and prompt endorsement of and Germany, the two countries that the trio’s membership bid fostered the impression in the have long driven forward the debate Balkans that the EU favoured the Eastern candidates.17 about the future of the Union. [...] Hence, The rise of illiberal forces in the EU is likely to undermine the position cannot be filled by the national of a country the EU’s authority to push for higher democratic that is considered an electoral autocracy30 and is under EU standards in candidate countries and disincentivise scrutiny for the erosion of the rule of law domestically, as the implementation of rule of law reforms in the w. [...] The choice of the next good grasp of the technical and political aspects of the Commissioner for Enlargement matters in this regard enlargement process and be familiar with the interests, because it could help to tilt the balance in the direction positions, and concerns of different EU stakeholders – of success or failure.