Recently, a new buzz word has appeared in official speeches in the field of the European UnionÕs external relations: ÒSoft powerÓ. The notion was first coined for American foreign policy and is now at the heart of EU foreign policy discourses, especially the European Neighbourhood Policy...

The article develops the thesis that the EU Commission borrowed some features from the open method of coordination (OMC) in order to implement the 1997 reform of the fifth EU enlargement policy. Contrary to the thesis of enlargement conceived as a unilateral policy, I use tools of historical and...