eunion1-6, Exercise 3: Enlargement fatigue and candidates

Model answer (one possible answer):

Enlargement fatigue is the wariness of some existing members and publics about further accessions.
One side: concerns about cost, rule-of-law disputes in some newer members, and doubts about how many more states the institutions can handle.
Other side: the Union's credibility is at stake if it makes promises to candidates and lets them wait for decades, and the security situation after 2022 has changed the calculation.

Three candidates (any three, with one fact each): Turkey (applied 1987, candidate 1999, talks since 2005, effectively stalled); Ukraine or Moldova (applied 2022, granted candidate status in June 2022, accession talks opened in 2024); Serbia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania or Bosnia and Herzegovina (Western Balkans candidates with long waits); Georgia (recognised as a candidate in 2023, path since disputed).

(Statuses change every year; check the EU's enlargement pages.)