The EU is like playing in the Champions League, one official in Brussels said recently. Not, they claimed pointedly, a more minor domestic competition.
If you want to get the jackpot ทางเข้าslotxo to break a lot and many times, then place a high bet, which this part may require feeling. It is also a decision aid.
The message being that it isn't easy to win membership.
For years Western Balkans states have tried to climb the accession ladder into the EU.
Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen conceded at a summit in Slovenia on Wednesday that the long wait was causing "impatience" and "frustration".
The lack of a decision on even opening negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania was "jeopardising our standing and leverage in the region", she warned.
She was at pains to stress: "We want the Western Balkans in the European Union."
The Slovenian gathering involved family photos, lunch and all the usual pageantry, where EU leaders met their counterparts from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, the Republic of North Macedonia and Kosovo.
But it wasn't a decision summit on enlargement, rather a "reaffirmation" of ties.
Mrs von der Leyen said that, while there had been progress by Balkan states, there was more to do on fighting corruption and economic reforms.
European Council President Charles Michel conceded it was no secret that the 27 member states weren't in agreement about the bloc's capacity to take on new members.