{"id":2825,"date":"2022-09-08T15:59:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T13:59:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2024-03-28T15:27:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T14:27:13","slug":"war-in-ukraine-has-the-time-for-eu-enlargement-arrived","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/war-in-ukraine-has-the-time-for-eu-enlargement-arrived\/","title":{"rendered":"War in Ukraine: has the time for EU enlargement arrived?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine has upended the European order as we know it, and that was even before the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was cut off<\/a> this week. While the bloc gets down to grappling with the unfolding energy crisis, the question of consolidating its flanks by speeding up the enlargement process has also come back into focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A crowded waiting room<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a critical meeting on 23-24 June<\/a>, the European \u0421ouncil granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova and recognised the \u201cEuropean perspective\u201d of Georgia \u2013 a nod acknowledging the country\u2019s future belonged within the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than a month later, Brussels brought to an end the respectively 8- and 17-year-long waits for Albania and North Macedonia by allowing them into the foray of accession negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leaves two groups of countries aspiring to join the union: on the one hand, the six Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) who began their journey in 2003 at the EU summit held in Thessaloniki, Greece, and now find themselves at different accession stages. On the other, the three countries Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, which submitted applications to join the bloc following Russia\u2019s aggression in Ukraine earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laborious accession criteria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Such an unruly patchwork makes clear the need for a quicker and more effective accession process. Indeed, countries currently aspiring to join the bloc must prove they are able to meet the Copenhagen criteria<\/a> established by the EU Council in 1993 in Denmark\u2019s capital. These include the provision of sound democratic institutions, a respect for the rule of law, human rights, and protection of minorities. Would-be EU member states must also show they are equipped with a functioning market economy and the institutional and administrative capacity to implement the set of EU legislation and rules imposed on member states, or acquis<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once these conditions are met, every one of the 27 member states of the European Council must vote the accession of new members, according to a unanimity vote system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, might the war finally bring the EU round to enlarging, if not reforming its accession criteria?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scholz\u2019s diplomatic blitz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are signs some want to break the deadlock. Take German chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has spent a good part of the summer lobbying for an acceleration of the accession negotiations for the Western Balkans. On 10-11 June he conducted a whistle-stop tour in Kosovo, Serbia, Macedonia and Bulgaria during which he reiterated the region\u2019s strategic importance for Germany and reprimanded Bulgaria for blocking North Macedonia\u2019s access over language and historical disagreements. On 29 August, Scholz again urged the union to expand at a lecture in Prague: The \u201ccentre of Europe is moving eastward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greece has joined the ranks. Writing in Politico Europe on 10 June<\/a>, prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, stressed the \u201cexistential importance of integrating this region in the European family\u201d by 2033 \u2013 \u201can ambitious but achievable timeline\u201d. Fulfilling this promise would spare aspiring countries from disillusionment, but also a \u201cvacuum for hostile actors\u201d such as Russia or China from developing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to an enhanced enlargement process, EU member states such as Austria, Italy, Poland and Slovenia have consistently expressed their support for welcoming the Western Balkans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unanimity vs. majority vote<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many agree it is high time to streamline the accession procedure, notably by reforming the bloc\u2019s unanimity voting system. In Prague, Scholz stated:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere unanimity is required today, the risk of an individual country using its veto and preventing all the others from forging ahead increases with each additional member state.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The chancellor went on to announce he had \u201cproposed a gradual transition to majority voting in common foreign policy, but also in other areas, such as tax policy \u2013 knowing full well that this would also have repercussions for Germany\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this regard, Scholz confirms its alignment with France, which has repeatedly criticised unanimity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[More than 80,000 readers look to The Conversation France\u2019s newsletter for expert insights into the world\u2019s most pressing issues<\/em>. Sign up now<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is sensible. The excesses of certain states\u2019 bargaining power were largely demonstrated by the case of North Macedonia, which was vetoed twice: first by Greece in 2018 on the grounds of the country\u2019s name, and then by Bulgaria since 2020 over language issues and the country\u2019s Bulgarian ethnic minority rights. At a time of rising populism, majority voting would also prevent outsized egos of throwing spanners into the EU works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any talk of reform is bound to require heavy lifting before it can materialise, with many opposed<\/a> to treaty changes. Hungary, which has been lobbying for an inclusion of the Western Balkans into the EU for years, is one of them. At a council meeting in 2020, foreign minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 described<\/a> the \u201cproposal that the EU should no longer give unanimous consent to its foreign policy decisions\u201d as \u201cdangerous and completely contrary to EU treaties\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A promising compromise? Macron\u2019s two-tier Europe<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Awaiting substantial treaty changes, which would take years of negotiations, one solution could be to adopt a differentiated integration along the lines proposed by French president Emmanuel Macron. Speaking at a conference on the future of Europe<\/a> on 9 May in Strasbourg, he articulated the concept of a European forum that would be separate from the European Union, a \u201cEuropean political community\u201d. Inspired by Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand\u2019s (1981-1995) initial idea of a European confederation, the community would offer European neighbours a \u201cnew space for cooperation on politics, security, energy, transport, infrastructure investments and the movement of people, especially the young\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea needs refining, however, with the questions of who could join the community, the scope of collaboration, and decision-making procedure still up for debate. It is also unclear whether the forum would serve as an alternative to actual enlargement or as an antechamber for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But regardless of the form of EU enlargement, it is clear Russia\u2019s aggression against Ukraine has brought together members states around it like never before in the last two decades. Reservations over the majority vote, which in the end come down to hesitations over trade-offs between EU unity and national sovereignty, will require significant leadership in order to be overcome. Rather than fear and confrontation, member states must now look to their sense of community and responsibility for the EU to act like the global player ought to be \u2013 with urgency and unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine has upended the European order as we know it, and that was even before the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was cut off this week. While the bloc gets down to grappling with the unfolding energy crisis, the question of consolidating its flanks by speeding up the enlargement process … War in Ukraine: has the time for EU enlargement arrived?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[488],"tags":[302,324,454],"article-type":[12],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEU enlargement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While the bloc grapples with the unfolding energy crisis, the question speeding up the EU enlargement process has also come back into focus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/insights.ieseg.fr\/en\/resource-center\/war-in-ukraine-has-the-time-for-eu-enlargement-arrived\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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