Further EU enlargement – a ‘brave new world’, or more like ‘back to the future’?

Will the challenges faced by both the European Union and a candidate country during a future enlargement process be ‘new’ challenges, or will they be reiterations of challenges successfully overcome during previous enlargements, notably during the ‘Big Enlargement 1.0’ in 2004? This contribution argues that many of the challenges (institutional, political, economic, legal, and linguistic) are indeed not new; but that a future EU enlargement is likely to take place within a far more uncomfortable global environment. In particular, the presence of a hostile and aggressive near neighbour in the shape of Russia will require a concerted and intelligent response.