Spasimir Domaradzki’s chapter demonstrates the relativity of political criteria for EU membership, especially since the negotiation of the last enlargement which started in 1998. It attempts to test the political criteria application to countries like Bulgaria and Romania that were believed to be ‘latecomers’ among the countries that joint the Union after the ‘big bang’ enlargement of 2004, still being a part of that ‘wave’. It is likely that the same analysis would be relevant for another latecomer, Croatia: it joined the EU on 1 July 2013 with a much worse macroeconomic situation than Bulgaria and Romania on 1 January 2007.

Domaradzki, though this is not his main objective, also reassesses the political-science analytical tools designed to review memberships in such complex international arrangements as the EU, and, in my view, contributes to the critical review of contemporary methodology for the explanation of the EU enlargement.

His focus on Bulgaria and Romania, and on Serbia gives food for thought for the interpretation of next wave of EU enlargement that is most likely to involve most of the West Balkan countries – the ex-Yugoslav successor states and Albania. It remains to be seen to what extent the EU is still attractive to these and other new members. It is likely in the next year or so the Balkan path to the EU would call for deeper understanding of their backgrounds. Domaradzki’s analysis avoids repetition of generally available European Commission reviews on the most ‘problematic parts’ of the Acquis Communitaire, and focuses on the ways candidate countries’ political leaders play with the political criteria.2 Of these countries, Serbia, arguably, is the most complicated case.

Principal issues

In my understanding of ‘legitimacy’ and ‘opportunism’, societal and political phenomena associated with them change over time, both as public moods and as political rhetoric, and both have an impact on the preferences and expectations of involved political leaders on both ends of the accession as well as of the affected individuals or voters in the already-member state and the newcomers.