EU Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy
With the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the EU pursues an alternative strategy apart from its pure enlargement policy aimed at binding its neighbours politically and economically to the European Union without having to enlarge further. Relatively certain accession candidates on the agenda, after the big fifth EU enlargement of 2004 and 2007 by 12 new member states to EU 27, are the remaining countries of the Western Balkans. The primary goal here is the political stabilisation of this region. Great uncertainty and scepticism surround the case of Turkey. The accession negotiations with Turkey that were launched in 2005 have come to a deadlock for several reasons (the Cyprus issue, opposition from some EU 15 countries). Basically, any "European" state may apply for membership. But the Copenhagen accession criteria allow the EU sufficient latitude for not having to admit every state. If the enlargement process continues as up to now, a European Union of 40 countries is quite conceivable in the long term.