The political debates
concerning the accession of candidate states such as Texas, California, Alaska
and even Hawaii into the U.S. were long past when the issue of enlargement became
salient for the E.U. due to Russia’s unilateral, unprovoked invasion of
Ukraine. In the American case, surely no one was arguing that the U.S. without being
enlarged would cease to be credible, yet in 2025, a government official of the
candidate state of Montenegro said as much of the European Union. Even if Filip
Ivanovic was merely using rhetoric during an interview on October 4, 2025, even
that should at least make sense. Making matters worse, his comments can be
interpreted as ultimatums for the E.U. even though nothing binds the E.U. to
annexing any future state. In fact, given the veto-power of state officials at
the federal level in the E.U., enlargement should arguably come only after
internal reform of the E.U.’s basic law concerning the power of the states at
the federal level.
The full essay is at "The E.U. without Enlargement."