War in Ukraine “underlines the importance” of EU enlargement

NIn a position released today before the informal European Council in Granada, which takes place on October 6th as part of the Spanish presidency of the EU and which will be dominated by the possible entry of new members into the community project, the European Commission emphasizes that “the war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine underlines the importance of EU enlargement”.

“The EU continues to provide assistance to all candidate countries on the path to full membership and will assess the progress made to date in its next annual enlargement package”, highlights the community executive.

The theme of enlargement will then be in focus at the Granada summit.

A draft of the conclusions of this informal meeting, to which the Lusa agency had access today, states that “an enlarged Union will make the EU safer and more prosperous”.

“Enlargement is a driver for improving the economic and social conditions of our citizens and reducing disparities between countries. In the perspective of a new enlarged Union, both the EU and future Member States must be prepared: future members must intensify its reform efforts and the Union must carry out the necessary groundwork internally”, states the document, to be agreed by the 27 European heads of government and state.

“In particular, we will have to address fundamental issues [como] what do we do together, how do we decide, how do we match means and ambitions”, is also mentioned, in an allusion to possible institutional reforms such as revision of Treaties and a hypothetical transition to qualified majority instead of unanimity in certain subjects.

Just today, the President of the European Parliament defended, in an interview with Agência Lusa and other European news agencies in Brussels, that formal negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the EU should be started by the end of the year, asking the States to members who “don’t disappoint millions of people”.

In mid-2022, EU Member States adopted a historic decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, which joined a wider group of countries, some of which have long been on the ‘queue’ to enter the EU. European bloc.

This list now consists of Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, North Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Enlargement is the process by which states join the EU, after meeting political and economic requirements.

Any European state that respects community democratic values ​​and is committed to promoting them can apply for membership of the EU, but in order to do so, it must undergo a process of formal negotiations (which can only be approved unanimously among the current Member States). members), followed by the implementation of the necessary reforms.

In the position published today by the European Commission, the institution also states that it “will present a European defense industrial strategy to prepare the future framework for cooperation in the field of defense” and highlights the “urgent need to reach agreement on the […] reform of the European economic governance framework to adequately respond to the challenges ahead and to create clarity and predictability for fiscal policy”.

The text comes 18 months after the Versailles Declaration adopted in March 2022, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, in which the EU committed to strengthening defense capabilities, reducing energy dependencies and building a base more solid economy.

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