And by the way, the maximum a country can reach is "well advanced" in EU parlance, meaning that the best prepared Montenegro is still three "category" steps away from that. (I know these reports don't like scores but they actually help us understand what's going on.)

And a quick look shows:
▪️Montenegro made ⬆️⬆️progress in 4/6 categories ➡️ Moderate/good level
▪️Albania made ⬆️⬆️ progress in 3/6 categories ➡️ Moderate
▪️North Macedonia made 0️⃣ progress ➡️ Some/moderate
▪️Moldova made ⬆️ progress in 2/6 categories ➡️ Some
▪️Ukraine made 0️⃣ progress ➡️ Some level of preparation

By every metric, the industry is in deep trouble — and none of it has anything to do with future emission rules or an engine ban a decade away.

In fact, the future of cars is electric - not because of Brussels regulation, but because EVs will soon be much cheaper to make and run.

So what’s actually going wrong? The industry is facing a perfect storm.

China is hammering the sector powered by massive state support.

In 2020, China wasn’t a net car exporter. Today, it’s the world’s largest - pumping out 8 million cars a year, almost four times Germany’s pre-pandemic peak.

This is not a new idea. Think tanks like CEPS and CEP worked on a so-called staged accession model quite a few years ago. With @cergrant.bsky.social we at @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social also did an overview of institutional challenges to enlargement earlier this year www.cer.eu/insights/doe...