The chapter draws attention to a priority aspect of the European integration process, namely, the institutional landscape. A powerful institutional background of a country can induce growth, which supports the pathway to EU enlargement. The core challenge is to ascertain how the institutional factors have changed over the period 2012–2022, as well as the macroeconomic variables, under the pressure of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. The EU candidate countries from the Eastern Partnership and the Western Balkans are analyzed, along with some states which are already part of the EU, but which had fairly comparable development contexts. The conclusions indicate that the shock transmitted by COVID-19 on the institutional indicators was rather temporary in most cases, with their trajectories being largely preserved. It also follows that several countries have distanced themselves from the path dependence rooted in authoritarian regimes. As for the war in Ukraine, beyond its many harsh sides, it seems that it might symbolize a turning point that would involve rushing toward absorbing EU values and assuming a momentous role of the EU internationally.