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The first cluster for screening and negotiation would be the
“Fundamentals”. The progress in this cluster will define the pace of the
accession talks and progress with regard to negotiating other clusters.
If successfully negotiated, the “Fundamentals” will be “provisionally
closed”, meaning that the fundamental chapters will be reviewed
throughout the whole negotiation process and reflected in annual
reports – Enlargement Packages of the EU Commission. Once all clusters
are concluded, the commission will return to “Fundamentals” for the
final closure of this cluster and the whole accession negotiations.

The EU “Unexpected” Enlargement and its Prospects

Currently, the EU is still enlarging. This time, it expands towards the
Western Balkans, as well as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, despite
the certain skepticism about EU enlargement which has always been a
leading sentiment in the EU.

The final document of the Copenhagen Summit of 1993, which
set the EU membership criteria, also introduced the following clause:
“The Union’s capacity to absorb new members, while maintaining
the momentum of European integration, is also an important
consideration.” Since then, similar provisions have been regularly
102
introduced in the final documents of almost all of the consecutive
European Council meetings, including, for instance, the summit
document of March 25, 2020, in which the EU members agreed that, in
line with its enlargement, the Union also needs to “develop its capacity
to integrate new members.”
103
It would be fair to say that there were objective internal and
external reasons behind the above-mentioned skepticism. Probably,
the skepticism against EU enlargement is one of the main reasons why
the EU was hesitant to grant the EU membership perspective to Georgia,
Ukraine and Moldova. Even if the EU’s stance, to a certain extent, may
look logical, it could, nonetheless, demonstrate more flexibility:

102 European Council in Copenhagen 21-22 June 1993
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/21225/72921.pdf
103 Council of the European Union, Conclusions, 25 March, 2020
https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-7002-2020-INIT/en/pdf