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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.
ADVERTISEMENTIn a Euronews-moderated debate in Davos Prime Ministers of Croatia and Montenegro, Foreign minister of Ukraine and the European Commissioner for Enlargement debated how the EU can revitalize its enlargement process.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has injected a renewed sense of urgency when it comes to the EU accession talks. But the process has been rather slow. Some candidates’ accession bids have been stalled for well over a decade. EU Commissioner for enlargement Marta Kos admits that since ten countries joined the block in 2004 and the more recent accession of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia in 2013, the economic and geopolitical outlook have fundamentally changed.“At that time it was seen that it is getting more important to go inside or to take care about the deepening of the European Union,” Marta Kos said, adding that the rule of law has become an important aspect. “We have some countries inside the European Union who are not following the rule of law. And with the many member states we have seen somehow fear that this could harm the European Union in the sense of we should not let in any country which is really not 100% prepared to to enter, not only on an economic path.” Sharing the experience with the Prime Minister of Montenegro and Ukraine’s foreign minister, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković pointed out that even if it took his country a long time to join the EU in 2013, the higher scrutiny was worth it. “The economic impact and the developmental impact, infrastructure, including also values, the rule of law and everything that goes with it, were highly appreciated by the Croatian citizens and the society, and the country looks very different now. I would say much better.” Montenegro can be considered as the furthest along in the accession process among the nine candidate countries. The county’s Prime Minister said Montenegro’s plan is unchanged: to conclude negotiations by the end of 2026 so that “in 2028, we become the 28th member state”.Milojko Spajić insisted that the EU accession process is not ‘actually a competition’, however, as he rejected the idea that the fast-tracking of Ukraine’s candidacy may have caused rancour among other membership hopefuls. “We love it,” Spajić said. “We want it even faster.”Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister added that the EU is “not doing a favour for us” because he believes that country “will contribute to the strength of the EU” thanks to its experience on the battlefield, and its technology and defence industries.”The cost will be approximately 0.17% of the EU’s GDP, if we are speaking about the enlargement of nine countries,” he said.For Montenegro and Ukraine the expectations are certainly high for 2025 and the two candidates hope to make more progress in 2025. According to Marta Kos, Poland and Denmark could helm “the best [EU Council] presidencies when we speak about enlargement”.Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stressed that he hasn’t “seen such a positive attitude about enlargement for a very long time” from heads of state and government.
