The Foreign Affairs Committee reiterates its “firm commitment to all candidate countries and to those which have been given clear membership prospects,” but also notes that "future enlargements will require more stable democratic support from the EU’s population," in a report it approved on Tuesday. It also says that more substantive policies are needed to bridge the gap between the Union’s neighbourhood and enlargement policies.

The own-initiative report by Elmar Brok (EPP-ED, DE) notes that “past enlargements have generally been a great success, benefiting the old as well as the new EU Member States.” At the same time, it recalls “that every enlargement must be followed by adequate consolidation and political concentration”  within the Union itself, if the EU is to be able to continue functioning effectively.
 
The committee therefore takes the view that “that the success of the enlargement process (and thus the success of the EU political integration process) can only be ensured if there is clear and long-lasting support for the EU membership of each candidate country.”  The report therefore urges a more effective communication policy on EU enlargement, and “reminds the governments and parliaments of the Member States that it is their responsibility adequately to inform public opinion about the positive achievements of former enlargements.”