Abstract

The purpose of the article is to clarify the role and influence of the European Commission in the process of developing and implementing of the EU’s enlargement policy. The relevance of the research is due to the important role of EU’s enlargement policy in the process of European integration and EU external action in general as well as the well as the value of the European Commission for the successful completion of the accession process. The research draws on the scientific papers of foreign scientists and documents and analytical materials of the European Commission. Enlargement policy is the most dynamic and successful policy of the Union, through which the EU has extended its influence to almost the entire European continent. Today, in many respects, this policy has a much stronger effect on the nature and content of European integration than other European Union policies, and is one of the decisive features of this process. Among the key actors in the enlargement policy are the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament and the European Commission. The latter being an institution that directly works with all candidate countries throughout their accession process. And once negotiation talks start, the Commission plays a crucial role accompanying the candidate countries throughout the reform process, establishing very close relations with them. Formally, in enlargement matters, the European Commission rather functions as a «technical assistant» of the Council. According to the TEU, the role of the Commission is limited to the delivery of opinions on a membership application and to technical-administrative assistance of the Council. But through expanding its own authority, evolution of the decision-making process, as well as the ability to set certain conditions and terms and set the tone in the negotiations, the Commission has become the actual leader in the development and implementation of the EU’s enlargement policy. As the accession process continues to complicate, in particular due to an increase in EU conditionality, the role and influence of the European Commission will steadily increase. The dynamics of this trend can be influenced by the choice of the scenarios of further EU development by 2025, which should be made by Member States before the beginning of the new institutional cycle in 2019.