EU must be ready to accept new members by 2030 - Charles Michel - video Dailymotion

euronews (in English)

The European Union must be ready to enlarge by 2030 if it wants to remain "credible", European Council President Charles Michel said Monday at the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.

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00:00 "The European Union must be ready to enlarge by 2030.

00:06 That's what the President of the EU Council said in Slovenia, where he outlined his vision

00:11 for the bloc to reflect the profound geopolitical shift following Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

00:17 "Finally, enlargement is no longer a dream.

00:23 It's time to move forward.

00:25 There is still a lot of work to do.

00:29 It will be difficult, it will be complex, sometimes painful for the future member states

00:36 and for the EU.

00:38 But let's be clear, if we want to be credible, I believe, we must talk about timing."

00:48 After Russia's illegal invasion in 2022, the EU gave Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina

00:54 candidate status.

00:57 Government was also stepped up with other Western Balkan countries, Montenegro, Serbia,

01:01 North Macedonia and Albania, who also are official candidates, and Georgia's aspirations

01:07 are also being taken seriously.

01:09 The French President, Emmanuel Macron, on Monday said that the EU needs to reform itself

01:14 first if it wants to integrate new nations, and has to build consensus with more than

01:18 30 member countries, which is expected to be a difficult process.

01:22 Experts also agree that the momentum is there, but the accession model has to change so that

01:27 the functioning of the EU itself is preserved.

01:30 "The enlargement of the European Union, of course, risks bringing at the table more veto-wielding

01:38 member states and thus slowing down the process of seeking consensus on not the issue.

01:46 So unless decision-making is not reformed, qualified majority voting streamlines the

01:53 problems of an enlarged union and its smooth functioning risks only aggravating at that

01:59 stage.

02:00 And that will, in particular, be so if, indeed, issues of rule of law, respect for democracy

02:06 are not well settled in these new member states."

02:12 Both Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status in June, and several voices are calling

02:16 for the EU to open accession talks by December.

02:19 Thank you.

02:20 (Applause.)

02:25 (whooshing)

EU must be ready to accept new members by 2030 - Charles Michel

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