Difficult decisions on EU enlargement loom, as leaders prepare to meet in Spain

euronews (in English)

The idea of making the European Union bigger will be under the spotlight at two consecutive summits of European countries this week in Granada, Spain.

Transcript

00:00 It`s enlargement time. The idea of making the EU bigger has been gaining momentum since

00:05 the start of the war in Ukraine. And it will now be one of the main topics at two consecutive

00:10 summits of European leaders this week in Granada, Spain.

00:14 Western Balkan countries, which have already been in the queue for decades and newcomers

00:18 like Ukraine and Moldova, have stepped up pressure on the bloc, as they look to join

00:23 the club as soon as possible.

00:26 But before the EU grows from being a 27-member union to more than 30, nearly everyone agrees

00:32 that some things have to change.

00:34 There will have to be a reorientation of the big spending priorities on agriculture and

00:39 cohesion because, obviously, Ukraine, if it came in without any change, would eat up most

00:44 of the budget, and that will not be acceptable to many member states. So, there will have

00:49 to be a difficult negotiation in terms of the budget, who pays in, who gets what, what

00:54 the priorities will be.

00:56 He adds that previous rounds of enlargement missed the opportunity to reform the current

01:00 unanimity vote to avoid vetoes in key topics like foreign affairs. And it`s an idea that

01:06 the larger EU countries share as well.

01:09 In a recent report on enlargement by France and Germany, it highlighted exactly this.

01:15 The text also proposes creating different levels of membership.

01:19 But for this Romanian MEP, belonging to the EU should mean the same rules for everyone.

01:24 We need to be very careful in not having second-hand countries within the European

01:33 Union because I heard a lot of talk here in Brussels as well about the idea of having,

01:38 I don`t know, first-grade countries, maybe the old countries, and then newer countries

01:43 to be like second-hand countries. And it`s a very bad thing and it`s a very bad idea.

01:49 Whatever the outcome in Granada, EU accession is a long and tedious process. And faced with

01:54 an already difficult task when it comes to member states voting, leaders will have a

01:58 difficult decision to make on whether they move ahead with enlarging an unreformed Europe

02:02 or one which is eventually reformed, but likely leaves candidate countries waiting even longer

02:07 in the wings.

02:08 (whooshing)

02:10 (whooshing)

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