On Tuesday 18 November, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos, said that EU enlargement was a means of resisting the forces seeking to destabilise Europe.
“We need to push back against forces that aim to destabilise our continent, we need to clean up our continent from autocracies. We need to defend our space of freedom and democracy. And, once again, we are looking at enlargement policy to provide the answers, to fill the gaps of prosperity, freedom and stability across our Europe - and to close the gaps exploited by our adversaries”, she stressed at the first ever Forum on EU Enlargement, organised by the European Commission.
According to Marta Kos, if the EU’s neighbours choose a European future, “they expose themselves to attacks”. At the same time, however, she felt that the candidate countries were looking to the EU for protection against these attacks.
The Commissioner for Enlargement warned that geopolitical arguments did not mean that Europe had to accept new members no matter what. “It’s exactly the opposite. When democratic structures are weak or the rule of law fails, it can open the door to malign influence, corruption and organised crime”, she warned.
For his part, the European Commissioner for Defence and Space, Andrius Kubilius, felt that the success of the EU candidate countries, “created through enlargement”, could be an inspiring example for society in Russia and Belarus. “There is no other example where an isolated post-Soviet country, without going through enlargement, would be able to succeed”, he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Isalia Stieffatre)