On 9 November 2010 the European Commission adopted its annual assessment of the EU’s enlargement agenda. The document includes a 2010-2011 Strategy paper, the Opinions on the membership applications by Montenegro and Albania and seven Progress Reports on the candidate countries and on the potential candidate countries.

The presentation of the progress reports did not figure prominently in the media in  Central Europe. The articles are rather neutrally reporting about the key findings of the progress reports. Since the Commissioner for Enlargement Mr. Štefan Füle comes from the Czech Republic, the Czech media mainly focused on his comments concerning the enlargement strategy of the EU. Mr. Füle emphasized that considering how reluctant many EU governments are to admit any new members at a time when the bloc is coping with financial difficulties, it is important to show the citizens that enlargement will only take place if both the candidate country and the EU are ready for it. Only a few weeks ahead of the start of the Hungarian Council Presidency, Hungarian media mostly focused on Croatia’s progress towards accession. Hungary hopes that the accession negotiations with Croatia will be completed during its Presidency. The articles also report about the disappointment among political leaders in Turkey caused by the slow progress in the Turkish integration. In a neutral way, they also summarize the main obstacles for achieving progress in the Western Balkans countries. Both Hungary and Poland, who takes over the rotating Presidency in the second half of 2011, are supporters of the EU’s enlargement policy and will likely push to complete the talks with Croatia next year. In Slovakia, the main message of the articles was that the Western Balkans achieved progress in the integration but Zagreb is still without a concrete date for accession. Some Slovak online newspapers also published comments of the Czech and Slovak Commissioners who pointed out that the integration of the countries of the Western Balkans would strengthen peace and stability in the region.

The 2011 Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges, including progress reports for individual candidate and potential candidate countries, was welcomed quite realistically in the media in the Western Balkans. All the countries in the region acknowledge that improvements in the area of judiciary, fundamental rights, fight against corruption and organised crime, respect for and protection of minorities and full cooperation with the ICTY have to be fully achieved before joining the EU.

There is a common consensus in the Western Balkan media that Croatia best progressed towards meeting the conditions for the closure of the negotiating chapters, although it still needs to establish the administrative structures required for the management and control of EU funds. Albania, Montenegro and Serbia made some unbalanced improvement, retaining judiciary reforms and rule of law as their main obstacles. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo have achieved least progress over the past years, since they failed to tackle key reforms. Kosovo in particular needs to address the issues in the field of governance, economy and strengthening its democratic foundations, while for Bosnia-Herzegovina it is crucial to restructure its constitutional reform.