The EU is expected to expand again, but there is still no full agreement on how this should happen. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is sticking to his proposal for an associated EU membership status for Ukraine, Moldova and the Western Balkan states, that is Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.
Critics complain this would amount to a kind of waiting room or a second-class membership. Gunther Krichbaum counters that they have evidently not yet understood the model.
