Brussels, 29/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - The accession of the Western Balkan countries and of Turkey will not necessarily end the deepening of European integration, but only if member states have the “political will” to reform the Union's budget and common policies “well in advance”, said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. “There is no inherent contradiction between deepening and widening. Both must continue in parallel,” he said in an interview with EUROPE. “That's why it is so important to see the ratification and entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty in January 2010. This will pave the way for a deeper and ever closer Union,” he said. The commissioner went on to say that history had shown that EU enlargement had never prevented deepening and that the two processes were compatible. “In all five enlargements, we have seen both new members arriving and some big steps towards deepening political and economic integration. In the past 20 years, membership has more than doubled from 12 to 27, while we have been able to create the single market, the single currency, to reinforce our CFSP and to pursue some important common policies such as justice, security and liberty”.
To prepare the EU for new member states, Rehn argued for profound reform of the budget and main common policies, at the latest when the next financial perspectives for 2014-2020 are adopted. He compares this timescale with the Agenda 2000 which the, at the time, 15-member EU adopted in March 1999 to prepare for the accession of 10 new member states in 2004 and of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. “Agenda 2000, with its reform of the budget, the CAP and regional policy, allowed an orderly integration of the 12 new members. My conclusion of this is that it can be done in the future as we have done it in the past, if we have the political will to do it,” Rehn stated. He believes that there will be no absorption problem for the EU with the accession of Croatia, scheduled for 2011 - neither on the budgetary level nor in terms of the working of common policies. However, the accession of the other Balkan countries and, especially, Turkey, would, he said, need political reform and an appropriate budgetary framework. “We have to deal with the budgetary challenges and challenges to common policies well in advance so that the EU maintains its capacity to act and pursue its common policies even if it is enlarged” to around 30 countries, he said. Rehn is a firm supporter of Turkey's accession prospects. The future of the EU will depend to an ever greater extent on the role that it can play in a globalised world, which has to face many international challenges, he argued. So, “Turkey can be a major asset to face these challenges”.
“Enlargement policy has not stopped working.” Even though the current political situation is not very favourable to enlargement (with the economic crisis, uncertainty continuing to surround the Lisbon Treaty's coming into force, enlargement fatigue, etc.), Rehn refutes the idea that EU enlargement policy has stopped working. “I don't think at all that enlargement is in crisis,” he said. The “renewed consensus” on enlargement, approved by the European Council in 2007, remains valid, as do the accession prospects of the Balkan countries and Turkey, the commissioner insists. “I regret that we have a number of bilateral problems which affect the accession process,” he said, referring to the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, differences between Greece and FYROM over the name “Macedonia”, the Dutch veto on Serbia's SAA and the several blockages (France, Cyprus) affecting accession talks with Turkey. “Each of the problems has its own historical and contextual background. We cannot put them all into the same basket, they have different characteristics. In the previous enlargement round, we also had some bilateral problems,” he pointed out. “Most important is that the EU continues to respect its commitment,” he argued. (H.B./transl.rt)