On Thursday 31 August, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said that discussions should be held to determine how the EU should prepare for the accession of future Member States. Ms Metsola’s statement comes as the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, announced earlier in the week that the EU should be ready “by 2030” for enlargement (see EUROPE 13237/8).
“We must be ready if a country is ready (...) But what is good for 27 countries will be impossible for the 32 or 33. Or the 35, if we want to go further. This is not just a budgetary issue, but also a political and structural one. I’ll give just one example: Moldova - if they are ready by 2030 - so to speak - would we be in a position to say ‘we’re not’? That’s the question we wanted to ask the Parliament. Let’s discuss how to move forward”, said Ms Metsola.
“The most painful thing is when countries have been waiting for 12 or 13 years, as was the case for Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area, and one, two or three countries say no”, she added.
The President of the European Council also raised this point when he spoke at the Bled Strategic Forum. “We must ensure that the conflicts of the past are not imported into the EU and that they are not used to block the accession of their neighbours and future Member States. One solution could be to add a ‘confidence clause’ to the accession treaties to ensure that countries that have just joined the EU cannot block future Member States”, he said.
A “question of will” for the Commission
The President of the European Parliament was not the only one to react to Charles Michel’s remarks. The European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, felt that the Council had wanted to send out a message and that it was not a “question of dates”, but “rather a question of will and results”, on the part of both the EU and the candidate countries.
“The Commission has always been ready to make any proposal that could lead to accession”, he added, adding that “substantial proposals, including the growth plan”, would be presented in October.
Several candidate countries also reacted to Mr Michel’s announcement. For the moment, however, scepticism seems to be prevailing on this front. On Wednesday 30 August, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said that the deadline set by the President of the European Council was unrealistic.
“The first reason is that the process takes a long time and there is no end in sight. The second lies in the criteria, what you have to do to progress, which are constantly changing”, she declared.
Two days earlier, the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, insisted that the EU “keep its promises” and carry out the necessary internal reforms (see EUROPE 13238/6). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)