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While European integration is ongoing, our continent still remains politically divided, with many countries remaining outside of the EU. There hasn’t been an EU enlargement since Croatia joined the Union in 2013, despite the progress made by several candidate and potential candidate countries to meet the membership criteria. This creates a divide between those who can enjoy the freedoms and opportunities the Union provides and those who are dependent on only limited forms of integration. While some countries put great effort into meeting the accession criteria, their EU integration has been arbitrarily blocked by individual member states, often based on narrowly-defined national interests or domestic pressure from nationalistic groups.
The EU must remain an open project, commiting to a continuous enlargement process based on transparent accession criteria, including the respect for the Union’s fundamental values. Following the evaluation of these criteria made by the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council should be able to co-decide on the accession of new member states based on qualified majority voting. No single member state should be able to block the accession of a candidate country.
The integration of the Western Balkan countries should be prioritised to ensure peace and stability in the region. Subsequently, other European countries meeting the accession criteria should be invited to join the Union in order to unite the continent.
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18 comments
Absolutely yes. We must not fail the Western Balkans again.
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"reaffirming the European perspective for the countries of the Western Balkans. ":
Montenegro asks for financial help as half of it's debt now owed to China. Turned down. Therefore China is (going to be) entitled to own Montenegrin land in return. Indeed how reaffirming and prostective this is for all member states, especially neighbouring ones.
Ist das schon definitv abgeleht? Falls nicht, sollten wir uns hier dagegen stemmen. Denn auch wenn es natürlich grundsätzlich nicht gut ist, wenn die EU für einen Fehler Montenegros geradesteht, wäre es viel schlimmer, einen Zwnagsvasseln Chinas hier zu haben.
Agreed. Montenegro is a pro-European country that has made fantastic progress. They should be welcomed into Europe.
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At the moment the EU seems to be in a bind due to the large numbers of member countries. Many important projects need a unified voice, making it easy for a country to threaten a veto just to negotiate more investment.
Enlargement is premature, until these basic issues are open.
The proposal already mentions enlargement decisions being made via the co-decision of the European Parliament and the Council, so we can assume the veto problem in general is solved in the meantime, hopefully following this Conference on the Future of Europe.
Also, some other proposals on the platform address the issue of the 'veto dictatorship', you may want to check them out:
A more democratic & effective EU: Stronger European Parliament
Stronger together: A democratic European Federation
What you are referring to is that the accession decision can be made by Parliament and Council.
What I am criticizing is the time after that. We will have a larger union, where more countries negotiate by threatening a veto in decisions requiring unanimity.
Thank you for the links. But even with them, this point surely plays a role in the discussion about enlargement as well.
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In my many years as member of the European Parliament I fought for well prepared enlargement. An I continue to do so with a group of young experts from the Western Balkans. (see iipvienna.com ) But enlargement will need a lot of time. EU should be ready for a step by step integration process by involving our neighbors depending on their progress of reforms already before formal membership. We should not let the younger generation wait to long. Other forces will prevail if the disappointment is too big with the EU promising but not delivering.
Thank you for your service.
You are against enlargement because it takes a lot of time. If you still think is it the right way forward though, surely you would try to make processes more efficient before just dropping your goal. What has been tried in this respect?
To your second point regarding the disappointment of third countries. As the EU: don't promise something you can't hold then. You can't just promise someone something, and use the possible disappointment of that person to convince your citizens that what you promised must be done. Surely you have to think what is right first, and then do it reliably.
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I agree that we need to continue the enlargement of the EU, but I think that this goes hand in hand with a multi-speed Europe. The argument that welcoming new countries will make reforms even more difficult is true, which is why we must continue to enlarge the EU, AND create a more integrated structure within the EU with the countries that want it.
..which would not solve the problems of reforming the large EU, right?
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We should focus on Norway and Iceland first, imo
Norway and Iceland do not want to join - not now anyway. And we should help the people of the Western Balkans who want to join - even their politicians do not enough to crate the necessary conditions.
Throw in a massive effort to persuade Faeroe Islands and Greenland to (re)join too at the same time by making the Common Fisheries Policy more attractive. They're part of Denmark but not (fully) of EU so the process will not be as hard.
Certainly ! However we have to settle the border question ie allowing refenrenda in the Northern part of Kosovo, in the Serbian feeling populated area in Montenegro ( based on the results of the 2006 referendum) in the Presevo Valley, in the two greek villages in Albania, in the Serbian Republic of Bosnia, in the croatian populated part of Bosnia and in Southern Kosovo.
If we don't do this, eu integration will be jeopardized by ressentment and national identities. On the other hand, the organisation by the EU of such referenda will bound together european belonging and national ones.
Biztos, hogy az európai országok EU-ba csatolásával párhuzamosan gondolni kell a balkáni államok csatlakozására is. Azonban ezt jobban átgondoltabban kell tenni, mint a nagy számú csatlakozások során tette az EU. A tagállamok 28-ra bővítése felhigította az EU egységét, olyan problémák jöttek felszínre, amit az "Alapító Atyák" által elképzelt és az Alapokmányba foglalt alapelvek nem tudtak kezelni.
Ha idő előtt folytatódik a bővítés, a csatlakozó országok magukkal hozzák a megoldatlan problémáikat, amelyek súlyos pénzügyi, politikai és szervezeti súlyokat helyeznek a tagállamok és maga az EU számára. Külön gondot jelent Törökország Eu-ba történő csatlakozási, főleg a jelenlegi vezetéssel és a megoldatlan migrációs válsággal.
What is necessary is a permanent dialogue also with the citizens of enlargement countries. The EU should not only address the governments. And together with them the EU must ask for the necessary reforms. Let us hope for example that after the elections in ALBANIA the reform process will continue and that the tensions between government and opposition will not prevent a constructive cooperation concerning the EU aspirations.
so sehr ich spontan zustimme, und mir auch eine europäische Konsolodierung wünsche - die EU muss jetzt erstmal ihre Hausaufgaben machen... bestehende Mitgliedsländer wie Ungarn oder Polen müssen erstmal wieder .... europäisch integriert werden. und auch wir - also in meinem Fall Deutschland - müssen einige weitere Schritte hin zu einer Europäischen Integration machen. Art. 23 GG sollte uns dabei Ziel sein. Dann ist auch für die Beitrittskandidaten klar, welcher EU sie zugehörig sein wollen...
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