The objective of this article is to analyze the state of the art of the EU enlargement process — scheduled for 2025 — to the most advanced candidates, Serbia and Montenegro, through an overview of the achieved objectives as regards the satisfaction of the political criteria for EU membership, the economic criteria and the alignment with the EU acquis. A particular attention will be given to one of the most critical profiles within the process: the lack of legislation against hate speech, and, in comparative perspective, the ways in which the two countries face the issue. The areas in which the two countries seem to have achieved encouraging results in terms of progress in the process of joining the EU will be analyzed, as well as those in which there are still critical aspects. Without claiming to be exhaustive and focusing on the content of the Reports on the subject, some possible hypotheses for solutions to the problem will be mentioned.
