BLED: The European Union should get ready to admit new members from eastern Europe and the Balkans by 2030, EU chief Charles Michel argued Monday. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has focused minds in Brussels on the need for a new political momentum to support the European ambition of several membership candidates. But, with fighting still raging in Ukraine and Moldova's pro-Western government scrambling to reform, senior officials have previously been reluctant to offer precise timetables.
"To be credible, I believe we must talk about timing and homework," Michel said, addressing the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. "As we prepare the EU’s next strategic agenda, we must set ourselves a clear goal. I believe we must be ready, on both sides, by 2030 to enlarge. This is ambitious, but necessary. It shows that we are serious." Michel noted that the countries of the Western Balkans, created out of the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia, began their quest to join the EU more than two decades ago.
The president of the European Council endorsed the view of Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Europe should live up to the promises Brussels had made to candidate countries. But he also backed French President Emmanuel Macron's argument that the union should also streamline its own decision-making processes before integrating new members.
‘Speedy’ decision making
French President Emmanuel Macron said meanwhile that the EU may need to adopt a "multi-speed" decision making approach if it is to make progress on its core policies in the future. Macron told an audience of French ambassadors gathered in Paris that the EU should "accept more integration" for the members who were favorable, while others could progress at a slower speed. "I am well-placed to say that it is quite difficult to make progress on essential topics among the EU's 27 members," he said.
"It will not get any easier with 32 or 35," he said. "We therefore need to be somewhat audacious and accept more integration on some policies, and perhaps a multi-speed Europe," he said. The EU's European Council, which brings together the bloc's political leaders, requires unanimity for major decisions, effectively giving each member a veto. The Council's members are the 27 heads of state or government, the Council president and the president of the European Commission. In his speech, Macron warned that European countries, and the West in general, were in danger of decline as major powers emerged elsewhere.
"I believe that the international context is becoming more difficult which brings the risk of a weakening of the West, and especially our Europe. We must be clearsighted in this context, but not overly pessimistic," Macron said. He said demographic developments were not in favor of Europe, and its wealth creation and share of global trade had diminished.
This trend, which he said had been seen since the 2008 global financial crisis, had been reinforced by the energy crisis which put Europe at a disadvantage "because our Europe is not a producer of fossil fuels". The international order, which had given the West a preponderant role up to now, was "progressively being put into question", he said. – AFP