In a Commission document it has been roundly stated that the EU's capacity to continue to grow by admitting other states depends on the EU's own capacity to maintain the momentum of European integration, the candidate countries' ability to fulfil rigorous conditions and better communication on enlargement.
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn stated: "Enlargement is the essence of the EU's soft power to gradually extend peace, democracy and prosperity in Europe.
"This project needs broad support by the peoples of Europe. This is why we need to build a renewed consensus on enlargement, which recognises the strategic value of enlargement while ensuring the Union's capacity to function."
Based on the lessons learned from previous enlargements, the Commission proposes to further improve the quality of the accession process with concrete measures.
The capacity to integrate specific countries will be assessed at all key stages in the enlargement process. These assessments will include the impact on EU institutions, budget and policies, in particular, agriculture and structural policies.
What this signals is that the EU is about to pause the enlargement momentum for the time being to give the member states time to deepen the integration process.
This will also permit the people to become more involved and to understand what is happening. Otherwise, EU leaders will race ahead with decisions that will then prove to be unpopular with citizens.
It is also being proposed that the results of economic and political dialogue are to be fed into negotiations. More systematic use of benchmarks will provide concrete criteria for opening and closing negotiations on individual chapters of the negotiations.
In the Commission's words: "If a candidate country no longer fulfils the opening benchmarks in a chapter that is under negotiation, the Commission may propose that negotiations be suspended on that chapter.
"If a candidate country no longer fulfils the closing benchmarks in a chapter that has been provisionally closed, the Commission may propose to the member states that accession negotiations on that chapter be re-opened."
In membership negotiations, the whole of the EU's legal order has been divided into 35 'Chapters'. Prospective members must negotiate how they intend to implement EU law falling within each chapter. This implementation process begins before and continues during the negotiations and into the first years of membership.
The Commission also stresses that judicial reform, building administrative capacity, strengthening the fight against corruption and organised crime need to be addressed early on in the accession process.
Every key decision leading to a country's accession to the EU is taken through democratic procedures. The Union also needs to listen more and to communicate better with its citizens.
This is primarily a task of the member states, the candidate countries and potential candidate countries. They have to explain and defend their choices.
The Commission will complement these efforts, in particular through user-friendly information and by promoting civil society dialogue as well as people to people contacts between the member states and countries wishing to join.
The Commission wants to publish and publicise key documents related to the accession negotiations to bring the enlargement closer to the citizens.
Each country advances on its own merits. A country's satisfactory track record in implementing its obligations under the Stabilisation and Association Agreements is an essential element for the EU to consider any membership application.