{"id":673492,"date":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673492\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T06:36:10","slug":"the-eu-has-a-chance-to-expand-it-may-not-get-another-soon-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/673492\/","title":{"rendered":"The EU has a chance to expand. It may not get another soon \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union<\/a> has a chance to make real yards on the next expansion of the bloc for the first time in years. Miss the opportunity and it might not come around again for a long time. A bumper year of elections in 2027 across four of Europe\u2019s biggest powers, however, could see that window slam shut. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s the big one in the spring. The presidential poll in France<\/a> where Marine Le Pen<\/a>\u2018s Eurosceptic, far-right National Rally has a strong chance of claiming the keys to the \u00c9lys\u00e9e. <\/p>\n

Parliamentary elections in Italy<\/a> could pull prime minister Giorgia Meloni<\/a> further to the right, both on the campaign trail and, more importantly, in any coalition negotiations that ensue.<\/p>\n

There are also elections in Poland<\/a> pitting prime minister Donald Tusk<\/a> against the populist Law and Justice party and far-right forces, while in Spain<\/a> Pedro S\u00e1nchez<\/a>\u2019s left-wing government faces a serious challenge from the right-wing People\u2019s Party and far-right Vox. <\/p>\n

Those national votes could see a tectonic shift in the balance of power inside the EU. That\u2019s part of the reason Brussels wants to get a rush on several big decisions, such as the bloc\u2019s next seven-year budget and enlargement. <\/p>\n

Countries in the western Balkans want to join the club. So do Ukraine<\/a> and Moldova<\/a>. However, centrist governments are wary that surging far-right and populist forces will tap into voters\u2019 anxiety about letting new members into the EU. <\/p>\n

Montenegro<\/a> is hurrying to complete the remaining \u201cchapters\u201d of internal reforms that the EU sets as the precondition for membership. The small Balkan front-runner hopes to finish that work in the coming months. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0A clear front-runner has emerged in the race to join the EU – can it cross the finish line?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Ukraine is at the start of what is a years-long process. Kyiv has been permitted to open two of the six \u201cclusters\u201d of negotiating chapters and wants the go-ahead to kick off the rest. <\/p>\n

Every step on a candidate country\u2019s journey needs to be okayed by all existing member states; the delicate political arithmetic involving 27 different governments is forever in flux. <\/p>\n

It is the European Commission<\/a>, the EU\u2019s executive body, that judges how candidate countries are getting on. Ursula von der Leyen<\/a> and co want to press ahead and get Ukraine\u2019s bid moving. <\/p>\n

Kyiv\u2019s membership ambitions had been blocked by Hungary<\/a>\u2019s far-right prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a>, until the populist was displaced by P\u00e9ter Magyar in a landslide electoral victory this April. Magyar is patching up relations between Brussels and Budapest and has assented to Ukraine moving a few rungs up the accession ladder, but slowly. <\/p>\n

That breakthrough, coupled with Montenegro and Albania<\/a> ticking off reforms, has meant there has been more movement recently than any time \u201cin the last 25 years,\u201d European commissioner for EU enlargement Marta Kos said on Friday.<\/p>\n

The commission wants greater safeguards that would apply to new entrants, to make sure countries continue to respect the rule of law once they are inside the tent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018It\u2019s now or never\u2019: Is the EU serious about letting in new members?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

European leaders should make a greater effort to allay citizens\u2019 \u201cfears\u201d about expanding the union again, Kos told reporters in Dublin Castle, where European affairs ministers were talking about enlargement on Friday. <\/p>\n

Minister of State for European affairs Thomas Byrne<\/a>, who chaired the meeting, said he wasn\u2019t overly worried about big elections on the horizon. <\/p>\n

\u201cElections are unpredictable … Campaigns change things. We\u2019ve just got to get on with the work that\u2019s here today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a push to open the remaining \u201cclusters\u201d governing Ukraine and Moldova\u2019s negotiations and perhaps even conclude talks with Montenegro, all by the end of this year. The top table of Europe\u2019s political leaders could start to look a lot different beyond that point. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union has a chance to make real yards on the next expansion of the bloc for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[39631,9,10,32303,4893,5766,2219,13,14,2220,6585,6,25126,371,11,12,15,16,14633,33111,210613,5,81065,379,95430,7,8,2264,4894,26163,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-673492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-albania","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-tusk","tag-eu","tag-european-commission","tag-european-union","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-france","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-headlines","tag-hungary","tag-italy","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-marine-le-pen","tag-moldova","tag-montenegro","tag-news","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-poland","tag-thomas-byrne","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ukraine-crisis","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-viktor-orban","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}