Brussels is in a hurry to further expand the European Union

• Guus Boeren

  Brussels editor

• Tijn Sadee

  European Union Correspondent

EU candidate countries have taken significant steps to join the EU in the past year. This is evident from the extension reports submitted by the European Commission.

Every year, the European Commission publishes reports examining the progress of selected countries. There are now ten: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Georgia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine and Turkey (with which negotiations have been frozen in recent years).

This year, extra attention will be paid to this, as EU membership was the subject of the recent elections in Moldova and Georgia. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit last week to all candidate countries in the Balkans also made it clear that expansion is high on her Commission’s agenda.

The fact that it is an urgent matter for Brussels is due to the war in Ukraine. “Enlargement is accelerating dramatically,” says the EU’s top diplomat Angelina Eichhorst. The Dutch woman has been closely involved in the expansion process in recent years. “Because of the war, the geopolitical need for expansion is high. “

The reports say that the commission sees reason to take new steps in the approval process for different candidates. All EU countries must agree to this first. It is not self-evident that they are. In the past, there have been significant delays due to individual restrictions by EU countries.

Six of the ten countries currently in the waiting room are in the Western Balkans. The accession of these countries was slow for years, but the EU is now trying to speed up the process with a new approach. When countries implement reforms, they will receive investments and access to the European market in return.

The EU is trying to integrate these countries step by step. Top diplomats in Brussels talk about a ‘fish trap’ in which countries are slowly swimming towards greater economic integration. According to Eichhorst, the selected countries will also look at each other. “Things are moving very fast in Montenegro now, the Serbs are looking at that and thinking ‘we have to go first!’.”

That strategy seems to be paying off at first. The EU opened the first chapters of negotiations with Albania a few weeks ago. Montenegro has already made some progress, and according to the report, some negotiation chapters may begin to be closed there. That country is also known as the first income; The country could join in 2028.

But there are still concerns. In the report on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the commission says that reforms have stalled since the beginning of this year.

Serbia is also under a magnifying glass. In addition to closer ties with the EU, that country is also looking for partnerships with China and Russia. “Serbia must align its foreign policy with the EU’s foreign policy in the end, otherwise accession will be in danger,” said the head of EU foreign policy, Borrell, at the presentation of the reports.

Countries on the eastern side of the European Union also want to join the EU. For Ukraine, EU membership remains an important goal. The European Commission hopes that negotiations will begin next year, as long as Ukraine meets all requirements.

The Commission also wants to take measures with Moldova. That country is currently walking a good distance when it comes to accession. In the referendum a week and a half ago, a very small majority voted to enshrine the country’s European future in the constitution. The question is whether Moldova’s European course is definitive. This weekend is the second round of the presidential elections. The anti-European president Sandu is against a pro-Russian candidate.

In Georgia, EU membership is looking further afield. The commission says that accession is blocked by actions of the Georgian government, such as the introduction of the foreign agents law. The EU also condemns last weekend’s elections, in which fraud was reported on a large scale. The Public Prosecution Service in Georgia started an investigation into this today.

Despite the new energy in the enlargement process, there are still plenty of challenges for the EU’s enlargement agenda. The diplomat Eichhorst hopes that the EU will continue with the new trend. According to her, it is important that the EU becomes stronger. “By extension you have additional voices, also on a global scale.”