European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement

The Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement is the member of the European Commission in charge of overseeing the accession process of prospective new member states and relations with those bordering the European Union (EU). The present Commissioner, as of December 2019, is Olivér Várhelyi.

Currently there are eight candidate countries, namely Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine. Two countries are recognised as potential candidates, namely Georgia and Kosovo.^[1] Candidate status was most recently granted to Bosnia and Herzegovina in December 2022,^[2] and a so-called "European Perspective" recognising a country as a potential candidate to Georgia in June 2022.^[3] Neighbourhood Policy is directed towards the Western Balkans, those countries on the EU's eastern borders, often referred to as the Eastern Partnership or the accession trio, and on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, referred to as the Southern Neighbourhood and often engaged with in the format of the Union for the Mediterranean.

Rehn edit

Olli Rehn became enlargement commissioner in 2004, following the enlargement to 10 new countries. In 2007 he oversaw the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Union. In 2004, candidate status was granted to Croatia. In 2005, candidate status was granted to Macedonia.

As Commissioner, Rehn has been involved with the enlargement to the western Balkans and Turkey, encouraging reform on those countries. 2006 saw the independence of Montenegro and separate accession talks starting with them.

In 2007 he welcomed the UN proposal on Kosovo by Martti Ahtisaari which advocated near-independence to the region and would have seen separate accession negotiations with the Union.

The Commissioner has also been involved in the reunification of Cyprus, bringing Northern Cyprus into the European Union. Rehn's head of cabinet was Timo Pesonen and his deputy head was Maria Åsenius.

Füle edit

Croatia acceded to the Union in 2013.

List of commissioners edit

The enlargement portfolio began to be created out of the regionalised foreign policy posts. In particular the Santer Commission post for relations with central and eastern Europe as those countries began applying to join. The Neighbourhood Policy element was created in 2004 as part of the External Relations portfolio. When that portfolio was absorbed by the High Representative in 2009, Neighbourhood Policy was transferred to Trade and then to Enlargement in 2010 under the Second Barroso Commission.

	Country	Period	Party	Commission
Günter Verheugen	Germany	1999–2004	PES	Prodi Commission
Janez Potočnik	Slovenia	2004	ALDE	Prodi Commission
Olli Rehn	Finland	2004–2010	ALDE	Barroso Commission
Štefan Füle	Czech Republic	2010–2014	PES	Barroso Commission
Johannes Hahn	Austria	2014–2019	EPP	Juncker Commission
Olivér Várhelyi	Hungary	2019–present	EPP	Von der Leyen Commission