8 hours agoFuele: So-called EU enlargement engine completely disappeared
Periskopi(a year ago)
(a year ago)Former European Union Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele has talked about the real prospects for a possible expansion of the EU with Western Balkan candidate countries. According to Fuele, candidate states are preparing for enlargement, but do not seem to happen the same with EU institutions and member states. Fuele is reluctant to tell if this [...]
According to Fuele, candidate states are preparing for enlargement, but do not seem to happen the same with EU institutions and member states.
Fuele is reluctant to show whether this is a matter of political will or implementation of reforms, since according to him “not all member states understand what needs to be done so that the EU is a functional body” and, furthermore, to enable the membership of several candidate countries, while adding that there is a kind of diplomacy between states.
Ditmir Busati's conversation on Podcastin “Public Square” expresses the conviction that the effect of motivation or so-called enlargement engine, which has therefore created a status quo in the case of the Western Balkans, meaning that you should not necessarily reform yourself, but you must sell this Europeanisation, or if the reform process, for the sake of false stability.
Fuele says that today's “of security is of great importance to the EU, to complete this task, because when the wind is strong, you have to either abandon certain projects, or to follow up with greater determination and strong will. I see the will and purpose to go that way. But we're gonna need that new engine. We need those two processes to go parallel step-by-step in order to say: This job is over!
Bushati says the invasion of Ukraine from Russia, but also a new president, in office at the White House, in a period when the EU is somewhat geopolitically divided have created a new situation in terms of security in Europe. But for Fuele these two developments are important as they have the potential to move things forward.
The conversationators talking about the Western Balkans referred to the need for political will from the EU and real reforms by candidate countries as the only way to become part of the EU within a short term.
“This would be the only way to maintain the importance of the EU since the failure at this point would have dramatic consequences not only for the states that are still knocking on our doors, and that I respect them wholeheartedly, but also for the EU itself”, Fuele said.
