Olivér Várhelyi, Commissioner-designate for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement, has placed himself as Johannes Hahn’s successor in his written responses to MEPs, without taking any risks or making any particular declaration.
Thus, in his 11 pages of answers, published on Wednesday 13 November, Mr Várhelyi believes that “the core of [his] mission will be to continue to accelerate cooperation with the partners of the Neighbourhood Policy on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, in order to promote stability, security and prosperity in Europe and in the neighbourhood”.
The Commissioner-designate intends, from the beginning of his mandate, to take forward work on revising and updating partnership priorities with partner countries, “in particular those of the South”, “with a view to ensuring the full application of the principles of differentiation and flexibility and in accordance with the EU’s interests”.
On the eastern flank, as stated in his mission letter, he wants to present, “by mid-2020”, “a new set of long-term political objectives” on the Eastern Partnership and promises that he will seek to deepen sectoral cooperation with Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.
“We will have to be ready [...] to respond to developments in Syria, to promote the EU’s strong commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity, to support the democratic transition in Algeria, to continue our global partnerships with Morocco and Tunisia and to support reforms for growth in Georgia”, he also explained.
This former member of the coordination team for the Hungarian enlargement process explains that, according to his mission letter, he must “ensure that progress (in the accession process) is maintained and accelerated over the next 5 years, through an assessment based on the merits of each candidate country, keeping a credible perspective on its future accession”.
Still quoting from his mission letter, Mr Várhelyi said that the Commission would maintain the proposals to open EU accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania and that he had been asked to work to accelerate structural and institutional reforms “with a focus on the fundamental principles of the rule of law, economic development and public administration reforms”.
And while some Member States criticise the non-reversibility of the accession process, Mr Várhelyi promises that, “if the need arises, [he] will not hesitate to take the decision to discontinue technical work on the negotiations” of accession chapters until the lack of progress in areas related to the rule of law is remedied in relation to the progress made in all negotiations.
“Of course, we can also suspend negotiations in the event of serious and persistent violations of the principles of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law”, he added.
Mr Várhelyi’s hearing before the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee will take place on Thursday 14 November.
See the answers: http://bit.ly/2NITyxp (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)