New Commission but Old Challenges: Can It Deliver on Faster Integration?

New Commission but Old Challenges: Can It Deliver on Faster Integration?The new line-up of Commissioners will define the next half-decade and will determine the path the European Union will follow in different policy areas, including new and existing ones.Enlargement seemed to slow down with the new membership of Croatia and even reversed with Brexit in 2016.Later, other challenges such as managing Covid and the war in Ukraine seemed to take over the agenda of European leaders.What can the new EU Commissioner on Enlargement continue of its predecessor's work to be successful, and what obstacles will he or she need to overcome for countries from the Western Balkans to join the EU?This week under the United Nations High Level panels, leaders from all around the world gathered to discuss the state of the world.On an informal side-event, the EU High Representative met with Western Balkan leaders from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro.The meeting was relevant for the candidate countries in order to resolve their bilateral disputes, e.g.Serbia-Kosovo dialogue as well as between North Macedonia and Bulgaria.While Bulgaria wants North Macedonia to recognise 1 its citizens as those who took part in its state-building including them in the constitution, the latter is reluctant to do so.Soon after the incident, the Hungarian Prime Minister 2 Viktor Orbán met with its North Macedonian counterpart to offer a solution as an honest broker to resolve the dispute with pragmatic solutions on the table.During the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) Albania received a green light to continue, however, due to its dispute with an EU member, North Macedonia did not receive a positive answer.A possible solution would be a legal agreement between the two countries, including Bulgarians in the constitution and at the same time letting the country move forward with EU integration.During her speech at the UN General Assembly, the President of 1 Nikolov 2024. 2 Euronews 2024b.