On 14 August 2015, an article by Andrej Novak titled „Europe without Borders 2025: Overcoming the EU neighbourhood policy deadlock“ was published by the European Council on Foreign Relations within the Wider Europe Forum.

In the article, the core point is that the wait for EU accession may be too long for some countries in the Western Balkans and in the EU-associated Eastern Partnership countries Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to maintain momentum and public support for European integration. Thus, what is needed are intermediate steps that keep expanding the 4 freedoms of movement (of labour, services, goods and capital) of the European International Market to aspirant countries in Eastern and Southeastern Europe at regular intervals.