The European Union should be ready to receive new members by 2030 and the candidate countries should work to fulfil all the accession criteria by then, according to the report prepared by 12 German-French experts.
Call 124* for Serbia’s entry into the European Union (EU)! The entire expansion plan devised by the most powerful EU countries, France and Germany, could be summed by this “code”. 1 – one date, 2030, as a deadline for joining the EU, 2 – two countries that wrote the relevant document, 4 – the number of accession circles and * as a sign of the regatta, the principle of which would not join the EU as a group but “according to merit”.
“I think we are too obsessed with ourselves. Potential EU members include Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia and Turkey. The EU itself has a group of countries that strive for deeper integration, and they represent that very core. These are countries that want to go further in deepening the integration. These are countries that have advanced in the integration process,” says Jelena Minic, the President of the European Movement in Serbia and adds: “Although Serbia has been stagnating (in EU accession) since 2015, we have opened some accession chapters. We have also opened a climate and energy cluster of chapters.”
Diplomat Srećko Đukić points out that the EU has sent the clearest message regarding the enlargement so far.
“I think that after the Thessaloniki summit 20 years ago, this is now the clearest message to EU candidates for membership. The year was also mentioned, but I think that the mood of the EU Member States is more important than that. The majority of citizens support the expansion not only to include the Western Balkans but also to Moldova. I think that the expansion wave has reached its peak now and that this is now the most serious opportunity for expansion. Of course, it all depends on the candidates, i.e. if they manage to prepare themselves properly, I see no reason why the EU would not accept them, even if we add to that the announced reform of the EU based on the mentioned circles. Those circles represent the natural absorption of new members,” said Đurić.
“EU enlargement by 2030 is doable, but only if the candidates and the bloc itself “redouble their efforts”, Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi said a few days ago, adding that the European Commission plans to make “substantial proposals” in October.
“The question has always been: Do we want to do it? And it is the first time I hear from the European Council that they want to do it – it is a welcome development,” Várhelyi said on the sidelines of an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Toledo, Spain.
His comments came after European Council President Charles Michel earlier this week suggested that Western Balkan and other EU candidate countries as well as the EU should be ready for enlargement by 2030.
(Blic, 21.09.2023)
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