1. SummaryThe question of whether the political conditions for membership in the European Union (EU) changed after the 2004 enlargement round has become – particularly in light of potential future enlargements – increasingly relevant. In his study, Frank Schimmelfennig addresses this question. Examining the episodes of postponed accession negotiations with Croatia or freezing of association agreements with Serbia clearly shows the increased importance of the issue. To learn more about the causes of these events, the author examines two aspects. Firstly, whether non-member states qualified for association or membership have been discriminated against by EU enlargement policy and secondly, whether national problems are reasons for the stagnation of accession or association processes. The results have two implications: first, they show “that EU enlargement policy has remained systematically linked to respect for fundamental democratic norms” (Schimmelfennig 2008, p. 919) and that there has been no discrimination. Second, after examining the cases of Croatia, Serbia and Turkey, the results highlight that the “legacy of ethnic conflicts” (ibid, p. 919) in these non-member states hinders conditionality (cf . ibid, p. 919). p. 918f.) and thus explain the recent shaky negotiations.2. The CritiqueSchimmelfennig article contains – alongside a solid theoretical basis – a contested conceptual specification as well as selection bias. These three questions will be examined below. First, before addressing the two shortcomings, it is worth emphasizing that expectations regarding policy conditionality are well founded and supported. In short, “the success of political conditionality depends on (i) the conditional offer of EU membership (…); ...... middle of article ...... udy's well explained and supported theoretical framework is diminished by the questionable concept specification regarding the Freedom House score and selection bias. Thus, the overall relevance of the article to the research area is diminished, but at the same time, improving the shortcomings of the study paves the way for future research. A large-N study that examines compliance costs at the national level could shed more light on the subject and improve the ability to generalize about the conditionality of EU membership after the 2004 enlargement: consistency and efficiency. In: Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 15:6. p. 918-937.Commission of the European Communities (2009): 2009 Progress Report on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Brussels.