9the integration of transport and energy infrastructure. This modified framework of cooperation between the EU and the neighbourhood acknowledges the power relations between the two and scaling zones of potential agreements. Financial incentives for closing chapters should follow existing frameworks with differentiated financial incentives for candidate states. Staged funding for closing chapters but also a flexible system of targeted support and well-defined programmes modelled after the European Endowment for Democracy should be increased. Public partnerships with local companies should come as differentiated sources of funding increasing the capacity of local businesses to invest in diverse initiatives and country-specific issues, but also incentivising business investment from abroad. Finally, the greater socialisation of political elites coming from candidate states across the European institutions should be ensured by granting observer status to candidate states in the Council and the Parliament. Curbing reformsEnhanced monitoring systems and post-accession conditionality should become an integral part of the enlargement process. The EU should establish regional monitoring centres that would come up with annual impact assessments. These assessment reports would be country-specific, identifying accession chapters which are most likely to be closed in the near future. Local centres for administrative excellence should enforce post-accession conditionality against rushed reforms, and their implementation can be closely scrutinised by extended powers of the Article 7 procedure. These new ex-ante Copenhagen criteria will be monitored on an annual basis, whereas newly admitted states are grouped in regional clusters. North Macedonia
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