20 years on from the EU’s promise of enlargement to the Western Balkans, the policy has run out of rope. Those EU member states that are pushing it are doing so for the wrong reasons, e.g. b/c they want to enlarge the EU’s caucus of illiberals (Hungary). Those who insist on... …tough conditions of democratic reform (e.g., The Netherlands) do so because their domestic constituencies are hostile to the very idea of enlargement, and in particular the admission of majority Muslim countries such as BiH, Kosovo, Albania.