On Tuesday 16 December, the EU Council was unable to adopt its traditional annual conclusions on enlargement due to Hungary’s blockage regarding Ukraine. However, the Danish Presidency has published the text in the form of Presidency conclusions supported by 26 Member States.
“Hungary is blocking us reaching (EU Council) conclusions and our attempts to find a solution have been rejected. I very much regret this. As several Member States have pointed out, this sends the wrong signal to the candidate countries. We want them to choose the EU, not Russia. We regret this all the more because enlargement is crucial for all the other Member States and the candidate countries are making progress on the basis of merit”, explained the Danish Minister, Marie Bjerre, whose country holds the Presidency of the EU Council.
On his arrival at the EU Council, the Hungarian Minister, János Bóka, warned that his country could not support the draft conclusions, “because the enlargement policy has become totally unbalanced”.
“This text paints a negative and unjustified picture of events in Georgia and the Western Balkans. As far as Ukraine is concerned, it is based on a realistic assessment of the situation and unrealistic political objectives. Moreover, it contains the seeds of technical decisions on enlargement taken in circumvention of established practice and EU law. We will reject it, we will oppose it”, he warned.
In the run-up to the EU Council meeting, Marie Bjerre explained that the reason for Hungary’s opposition was “the fact that we also want to have a strong position on Ukraine, one that is fair and equitable”.
European Commissioner Piotr Serafin regretted the Hungarian blockade. “It is also clear that we now need concrete action at EU level. The progress made by our partners requires a clear response from the EU”, he explained, highlighting the “substantial progress” made by Albania, Montenegro, Ukraine and Moldova.
“We are convinced that the process of preparing the draft accession treaty for Montenegro should be started and that the technical preparations for negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova should be continued and accelerated. And as soon as the conditions are right, we will be able to formally resume the negotiation process as soon as possible”, he added.
Predicted by a European source ahead of the EU Council meeting, the absence of conclusions on enlargement by the EU27 Member States on Tuesday 16 December means that the Heads of State and Government meeting at the European Summit on Thursday 18 and Friday 19 December will not be able to approve them either. The traditional end-of-year discussions on enlargement should nevertheless be held, given the “strategic” dimension that the subject now has, according to a senior European official (see EUROPE 13745/6).
“It is very clear that the Union must prepare for the possibility of one or more candidate countries completing accession negotiations in the very near future”, explains this senior official.
In fact, Montenegro and Albania remain the countries closest to joining the Union. On the same day, Podgorica closed five more chapters in the accession negotiations, bringing the total number of chapters closed by the country to 12 (see other news).
“We have to admit that in 2025, more chapters were opened and closed than in the previous 15 years”, said Neva Grasic, Slovenia’s Secretary of State for European Affairs.
The approved text does indeed mention the possibility of seeing “the creation of an ad hoc group for the drafting of Montenegro’s accession treaty” before the end of the year - but without Hungary’s approval.
The EU26 say they look forward with “interest” to the opening of clusters of accession negotiation chapters with Ukraine and Moldova, “starting without delay with the fundamentals cluster, followed by the other clusters, in accordance with the methodology and the negotiating frameworks”, underlining the progress made by the two countries, despite complicated circumstances.
On the other hand, the Member States point out that the EU accession processes of Georgia and Turkey are at a standstill.
See the text of the Presidency’s conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/k18 (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre and Camille-Cerise Gessant)