While the EU expressed its strong support to Serbia and its leadership, this support was paralleled by equally high expectations towards Serbia. Füle announced that the Commission will perform a thorough, objective and qualitative assessment of the merits of Serbia on all three Copenhagen criteria for accession: political, economic and the ability to take on the obligations of EU membership.

Orientation Debate on Enlargement

Furthermore, the European Commission has announced that the 2010 Enlargement package will be on the agenda of the Commission meeting on November 9. This will be the first enlargement package of the new Commission. It will comprise a Strategy paper, the Opinions on the membership applications by Montenegro and Albania and seven Progress Reports on the other candidate countries and potential candidates.

Current enlargement agenda

The current enlargement agenda covers the Western Balkans, Turkey and Iceland. The countries are at various stages, in a highly demanding preparation process:

• 3 candidate countries are in accession negotiations: Turkey, Croatia (both since October 2005) and Iceland (since July 2010).
• The Commission recommended in 2009 to open accession negotiations with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia but Council has not yet taken a decision on this recommendation.
• 3 countries have applied for EU membership: Montenegro (in December 2008), Albania (in April 2009) and Serbia (in December 2009). The Commission Opinions on Montenegro and Albania will be part of the 2010 enlargement package. Regarding Serbia, Council has asked on 25 October the Commission to prepare its Opinion.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) are the 2 remaining potential candidates.

Sources: European Union RAPID Press Release of October 25 and October 27, 2010.