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Can EU revitalize its stalled enlargement processes?
euronews (in English)
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28/01/2025
Enlargement is often referred to as the EU’s most effective foreign policy, but since its biggest wave of new members joined in 2004, the process has largely stalled.
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00:00
Enlargement is often referred to as the EU's most effective foreign policy, but since its
00:14
biggest wave of new members joined in in 2004, the process has largely stopped.
00:20
At Davos, I sat down with the Prime Ministers of Croatia and Montenegro, also the Foreign
00:25
Minister of Ukraine and the EU's Enlargement Commissioner, to discuss and debate how the
00:32
EU can revitalise its enlargement process.
00:36
Commissioner, I want to ask you the question first.
00:42
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has injected a renewed sense of urgency when it comes to
00:46
the EU accession talks, and EU leaders are more frequently meeting with seven countries
00:51
that are still waiting at the gate.
00:53
Some candidates' accession bids have been stalled for well over a decade, despite the
00:58
process and requirements for EU membership remaining the same.
01:03
What has changed in the EU that is making accession so difficult as you're starting
01:08
to take care of this portfolio now?
01:10
After 10 countries joined in 2004, and later Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia, the last in
01:16
2013, the economic and geopolitics have changed.
01:23
And at that time, it was seen that it is getting more important to go inside or to take care
01:31
about the deepening of the European Union, in the sense of we'll be able to answer to
01:38
those challenges which emerged at that time.
01:41
This is one point.
01:42
The second point is also the question of the rule of law.
01:46
We have some countries inside the European Union who are not following the rule of law,
01:52
and with the many member states, we have seen somehow fear that this could harm the European
02:00
Union, in the sense of we shouldn't let in no country who is really not 100% prepared
02:07
to enter, not only on the economic part.
02:10
We have been talking, in my opinion, much too much about the economic part of the enlargement
02:15
process, less about the values, and less about the rules of law.
02:20
Prime Minister, when Croatia joined the EU in 2013, as the 28th member state, it became
02:27
the second nation to do it on its own after Greece, which was 1981.
02:31
So that was a very specific case for your country.
02:35
And there was this kind of enlargement fatigue, largely a result of a slow integration process
02:40
for new members, which meant also there were kind of more demands and requirements of Croatia
02:46
when you joined the European Union.
02:48
How has this heightened level of scrutiny impacted the country now that you have joined
02:53
also the Schengen area and the Eurozone?
02:55
Well, Croatia joined, as you rightly put it, on the 1st of July 2013, almost 10 years after
03:01
the big enlargement.
03:03
What was good for us, we joined when we were prepared.
03:07
We, especially in my first government, decided to go into the deeper integration we managed,
03:13
which is the Eurozone, the Schengen area, the European Stability Mechanism.
03:17
And the benefits are there.
03:19
When we started nine years ago, my first government, we were at 62% of the average development
03:25
of the European Union.
03:26
Now we are at 78%.
03:28
By the time we end the third government, we'll be at 82%.
03:30
That means that the economic impact and the developmental impact, infrastructure, including
03:36
also values, the rule of law and everything that goes with it, were highly appreciated
03:40
by the Croatian citizens and the society.
03:44
And the country looks very different now, I would say much better.
03:47
Somehow Montenegro can be considered as the furthest along in the accession process.
03:53
How did you feel this change, as Prime Minister said, you know, when the arms were first opened,
03:59
but it's a bit different now for Montenegro, for Ukraine.
04:03
But also what areas of progress or closer cooperation with the EU remain?
04:07
You've just had the Commissioner visiting Montenegro as well, just a couple of days
04:11
ago, right, before we're meeting here at Davos.
04:14
First of all, I don't think that EU accession process is actually competition.
04:19
You know, like we are all trying to fulfill the basic conditions that EU is requiring
04:25
for our own good.
04:27
You know, it's not because of the EU that we are doing all of these requirements, it's
04:30
for ourselves to develop better, to be better market economies, to have rule of law, to
04:36
have more fair society, to have more democratic institutions.
04:40
So this is what we are trying to build.
04:42
We're trying to build a system.
04:43
It's especially difficult if you are a country like Montenegro.
04:47
You know, in ex-Yugoslavia, some of you might know that Montenegro was like a smallest republic
04:53
and very few, if any, institutions were based out of Podgorica.
04:59
Most of them are based out of Belgrade, some of them are based out of Zagreb, a bit maybe
05:04
in Ljubljana, but, you know, Podgorica, literally nothing.
05:07
So can you imagine 2006, we had to build basically institutions almost from municipal level.
05:14
Almost from municipal level.
05:15
So this was like a big, big step forward for us in last 18 years.
05:19
So we are like, by Montenegrin law, we are adults now.
05:23
So we are hoping that we get adult treatment as well.
05:28
Ukraine is also on its way to the European Union, and you've heard some of the notions here.
05:35
Now, your accession negotiations officially opened on the 25th of June 2024.
05:41
Considering that the process is generally considered to be slow and meticulous,
05:46
what can we realistically expect in terms of some sort of accelerated Ukrainian candidacy?
05:52
Why I say that is not about fast-tracking it one-way street.
05:56
It's about Ukraine trying to, every time to produce, to get their progress quicker and quicker.
06:02
Thanks a lot for your question.
06:05
In Ukraine, more than 90% of our people support Ukrainian EU membership.
06:11
By the way, that's another part of Russian brutal aggression.
06:16
Before the full-scale aggression, a little bit more than 50% of our population supported
06:24
EU accession.
06:26
On the fourth day of this brutal aggression, we applied to EU to become a member of EU.
06:34
In a half a year, we got the status of candidate.
06:40
It means that we need such a speed now because of geopolitical reality.
06:46
And it was also our response to this brutality, to these Russian atrocities, to protect our values.
06:53
It was our strategic choice.
06:56
And I would also, I would like to remind that EU, when it was founded after the war,
07:04
it was not only about trade.
07:06
It was also about to defeat war, to defeat thinking of war, of this war politics,
07:15
to defeat the Putins of that time, to defeat fascism, Nazism.
07:22
And regretfully, these diseases returned back to Europe.
07:26
And now we need to defeat this Russian aggression.
07:29
We must achieve long-lasting, long-lasting, just comprehensive peace because security
07:38
of Europe and security of Ukraine is indivisible.
07:42
And it is not a favor for us on our way to become a EU member because we will contribute
07:52
in the strength of EU.
07:53
We will contribute in the competitive advantages of EU with our, for example, defense industries,
08:00
with our technologies, with our security experience.
08:06
And probably it will be the best investment for EU.
08:09
If we are speaking about cost, we have such an evaluation, the cost will be approximately
08:17
0.17 of the EU GDP if we are speaking about the enlargement of nine countries.
08:26
Right.
08:27
These points that we've just heard from the two candidate countries regarding how they
08:31
have to overcome the obstacles within the EU of some of the member states who are less
08:36
willing on continuing the enlargement, but do they, do these existing countries then
08:42
share the same values that are actually demanded of the candidates?
08:48
First of all, we have to bear in mind that every enlargement process is a politically
08:53
driven process.
08:54
But what I would like to note that everybody is realistic because sense of realism is the
08:58
most important notion in the process of enlargement is that the forgotten Copenhagen, the fourth
09:06
Copenhagen criteria of 1993, which is so-called the absorption capacity of the European Union,
09:13
has come back.
09:15
In the absorption capacity translated into a common language means what is the budgetary
09:21
cost of enlargement, what will be the effect of new members on the play of contributor
09:29
countries and beneficiary countries, what will be the impact on the policies, cohesion,
09:35
culture, any policy that you can imagine?
09:38
I'm sure that you've heard some, lots of criticism regarding whether things are being fast-tracked
09:44
when it comes to Ukraine compared to some of the other countries that have been waiting
09:48
for longer and then applying longer and so on.
09:52
What's your take on that?
09:53
Because this is an important issue to address.
09:55
We love it.
09:56
You know, we want to be even faster.
09:59
We don't mind at all.
10:00
Like for us, it's totally okay.
10:02
It's just, obviously, don't forget us as well.
10:04
I mean, in the meantime, but, you know, progression of Ukraine is extremely welcome and we, as
10:11
I already said, we feel Ukraine is part of the wider region and we feel we have common
10:17
destiny and we want to see Ukraine progress as fast as possible.
10:20
But I would say that we should still keep some level of meritocracy and as in like meritocratic
10:29
approach.
10:30
So I think Montenegro has done a lot and we will do even more.
10:35
So our plan is extremely ambitious.
10:36
We want in two years, i.e. by end of 26, to fully close all the chapters, to be fully
10:42
ready for EU.
10:43
So we're hoping that EU can see that, can recognize the efforts, can recognize the spirit
10:50
that we are projecting and that they will accept us and they will, you know, like that
10:58
by end of 26, we close all the chapters, but in 28, we become 28th member state.
11:04
The race is the race.
11:05
I think this is healthy, you know, because it is based on the merit-based principle,
11:11
meaning, you know, it's not about timing, you know, sometimes I hear, but, you know,
11:15
the Western Balkan states, they wait for so long.
11:18
It is not about how long they are waiting.
11:20
It is how much they are able to deliver and about their political will.
11:25
And this has changed.
11:27
So if they do what they have to do, you know, we say negotiations, mainly it is take it
11:32
or leave it.
11:33
Sorry that I say it so bluntly.
11:35
So you have no possibility to now negotiate on some important basic value in the EU.
11:45
Well, that's all we have time for.
11:47
Unfortunately, thank you so much.
11:48
There is a lot of food for thought, lots of work for everybody, for the Commissioner,
11:51
for the member states, for the candidates.
11:53
Thank you very much and thank you for watching.
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