After the European Commission published its annual enlargement report on November 4, providing detailed assessments of the countries aspiring to join the European Union – Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia – it is now up to the bloc's 27 member states to express their position by adopting the so-called enlargement conclusions on December 16.

Since this document must be unanimously approved, it is often less critical than the EC’s – and much shorter. An advanced draft, seen by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, appears to follow the logic of the EC’s conclusions: Albania, Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine are considered the countries that have made the most progress, and the EU is looking to add at least one more country before the end of the decade. The most visible signal in the document relates to Montenegro and its progress towards membership.

As expected, two key points are placed in brackets, meaning that EU member states have not yet agreed on them. One of them states that the country “has made further progress in the accession negotiations and that 12 negotiating chapters have now been provisionally closed.” The number 12 remains in brackets. This is because Podgorica has so far managed to close seven of the 33 policy chapters it needs to close to join the bloc. However, there is still hope in Brussels that up to five more chapters will be concluded by the Christmas holidays, although diplomats with whom Radio Free Europe spoke suggested that the final number could be lower.

The second signal in the document is that this small Western Balkan country is moving ever closer to becoming the 28th member state. Another sentence in brackets states that “the Council decides that the ad hoc Working Party for the drafting of the accession treaty with Montenegro will be established in 2025.” The Council, where EU member states meet in Brussels, is filled with various working groups, in which diplomats tackle various policy issues from an early stage.

The fact that a group tasked with drafting the accession treaty with Montenegro is about to be established is a sign that things are getting serious. The drafting of these treaties comes immediately after the closure of all negotiation chapters and represents the last political act before accession. But not everything is encouraging for Montenegro. Even some of the “homework” on what it needs to do to complete the “final part” of the road to Brussels has not yet been clearly defined. The text says that Montenegro must improve its administrative capacity and electoral legislation, in particular as regards compliance with EU standards on the financing of political parties and election campaigns.

The major issue, however, is corruption, with the document warning that “the number of final convictions in high-level corruption cases remains low”. It also highlights “the need for Montenegro to improve its track record in investigations and prosecutions in high-level corruption and organised crime cases, ensuring final convictions, punitive measures, seizure and confiscation of assets”. It is no surprise that the fight against corruption is a key motivation for all countries that have made progress in the integration process. The text does not directly mention the recent Ukrainian scandal that forced the resignation of Andriy Yermak, the right-hand man and chief of staff of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in late November.

However, the work of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, which helped bring down Yermak, has been welcomed: The Council positively assesses the results achieved by the agencies in 2025, including a significant number of investigations, particularly in high-level corruption cases. The document strongly encourages Ukraine to continue efforts to “further improve results and capacities in this area”. The enlargement report also warns Ukrainian politicians against attempting to undermine these two institutions, something Zelensky attempted to do over the summer before backing down from the decision due to public outrage. The document says that Brussels “will remain vigilant on this issue and underlines the need to ensure that in the future there is no legal or political interference to influence the work of these institutions”.

For Moldova, the text is positive for the fight against money laundering and efforts at what is known as “de-oligarchism.” However, neither Moldova nor Ukraine will advance on their path to EU membership this year. Hungary has made it clear that it will not give the green light to opening any chapters with Kiev, and Moldova is still trying to separate itself from Ukraine on its path to the bloc. Instead, most EU capitals have agreed to wait until parliamentary elections in Hungary in April to see if there is any change of position from Budapest. The text offers little in terms of what will happen to Kiev and Chisinau, saying only that the Council looks forward to opening the first chapters for the two candidate countries “as soon as the conditions are met.”

For Albania, which recently managed to open all 33 chapters within 13 months (a record time for an EU candidate country), there is no indication when the more difficult process of closing files will begin. While the fight against corruption is also a key condition for Albania, the document stresses the need to improve the media landscape in the country, increasing transparency of media ownership, ensuring the decriminalization of defamation and strengthening civil society in general.

For the other aspiring countries, the text is largely mixed, except for Georgia, which has been heavily criticized for “backsliding on democracy” in recent years. While it does not call the country a “candidate in name only” as the European Commission did in its report, the Council says that “the actions of the Georgian authorities do not meet the EU’s expectations of a candidate country” and that “Georgia’s EU accession process is blocked until the authorities show a commitment to change their position and get back on the path to EU membership.”