In yet another sign of the new political impetus that the European Commission wants to give to the enlargement of the Union, the Commissioner responsible for the dossier, Marta Kos, was back before the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday 14 January to give an update on the progress made by the various candidate countries.
Among the topics discussed during the hour and a half of talks, the Commissioner was keen to emphasise the strategic and geopolitical importance of EU enlargement in the face of those “in the world, and there are many, who would like to see Europe fail”.
“Our strength depends on our unity as well as on our size”, she said. “Our enlargement policy must have a greater purpose [than enlarging the Union], it must benefit all Europeans”.
Nine countries are officially candidates for EU integration, with varying degrees of progress in the process.
As for Ukraine, the Commissioner said she was “optimistic” about the possibility of seeing the war-torn country “open one or two clusters” under the Polish Presidency – the same goes for Moldova, despite the October election being overshadowed by suspicions of Russian interference (see EUROPE 13520/8).
Marta Kos also expressed deep concern about the situation in Georgia, where recent political events have frozen the progress already made.
According to the Commissioner, the Union must be ready to continue supporting Georgian civil society, while bearing in mind that the current situation in Tbilisi embodies the “fundamental challenges” facing the EU (see EUROPE 13548/10).
The progression of the six countries of the Western Balkans is more delicate. According to the Commissioner, Albania and North Macedonia are, at this stage, the two “most progressed” countries in the process.
“I am confident that under the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU, we will be able to see more progress than in the last 10 years”, she declared, and predicted holding “around 10” intergovernmental conferences by the end of the year, without specifying which countries would be involved.
However, some MEPs were somewhat sceptical. “Yes, Albania has made progress, but the process also involves closing chapters and implementing reforms”, recalled Andreas Schieder (S&D, Austrian). “There is still a long way to go”, he pointed out (see EUROPE 13547/2).
“[Respect for] the Rule of law should be the cornerstone of the accession process, its very backbone. The Commission sometimes gives the impression of focusing too much on the economic process”, criticised Tonino Picula (S&D, Croatian).
The region is also suffering from political instability and punctuated by bilateral tensions (see EUROPE 13536/9).
Serbia, whose pro-Russian tendencies are an embarrassment to the EU, is also refusing to align itself with the Common European Security and Defence Policy, which is a sine qua non for progress in the integration process (see EUROPE 13531/4).
Marta Kos will be visiting Montenegro on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 January. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)