Politicizing enlargement in times of uncertainty: ’the curious case’ of blocking and un-blocking decisions on Albania and North Macedonia’s EU path

The main argument put forward in this article is that the overlapping crises that hit the EU over the past decade, culminating with the war in Ukraine, led to new forms of politicization of EU enlargement with ambivalent outcomes. At the theoretical level, the article sheds light on the shifting power relations and contestation within the specific context of EU enlargement policy. At the empirical level, the article focuses on the first mandate of Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘geopolitical Commission’ (2019–2024), and it assesses the forms of politicization around the decision of blocking and un-blocking the start of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania. The article relies on selected secondary data, as well as on research interviews with officials from the two countries. The conclusions outline how the geopolitical context triggered by the war in Ukraine has both enabled and constrained EU integration in the specific case of the Western Balkans.