EU tipped to bring eight new members into bloc amid Russian aggression in the west
EU tipped to bring eight new members into bloc amid Russian aggression in the west
PA
The EU has been tipped to bring in eight new members into the exclusive trading bloc amid Vladimir Putin’s desperate warmongering land grab in the west.
The current 27-member bloc could be extended to as many as 35 members in the coming years but officials have warned that doing so would bring potential challenges and infighting between member states.
EU status could be granted to the six Western Balkan states (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia) together with Moldova and Ukraine.
“This is now the moment to be bold and to change our approach to enlargement — to get the six Western Balkan countries, each and every one of them, and Ukraine and Moldova, clearly into our family,” Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg told Politico.
Ursula von der Leyen has been told to take on a 'bolder' approach
PA
“Enlargement is not a bureaucratic endeavour… It’s about exporting and safeguarding a certain model of life of free, open Western democracies.”
Two senior EU officials confirmed EU affairs ministers are expected to table a meeting on bloc expansion towards the end of October.
Germany and France, considered to be the EU’s two biggest players, have both shown positive signals on the topic of accepting more members.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said back in May: “We need a geopolitical EU, an enlarged and reformed EU, and an EU open to the future.”
Ukraine has been tipped as a potential future member of the EU
PA
EU Council President Charles Michel called for the admittance of new members into the bloc by 2030 but a spokesperson for the EU Commission poured cold water on his plans by stating the process to join the bloc was purely “merit-based”.
Talk of expanding the trading bloc comes just two days ahead of Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech on Wednesday in which EU expansion has been tipped to feature heavily.
Von der Leyen’s speech will also be the last address in this legislative mandate ahead of the 2024 European elections.
The EU’s land-grabbing plans marks the first time the drive has happened since Croatia was accepted into the bloc in 2013.
EU Council President Charles Michel
PA
Turkey was previously tipped to become a member back in 2011 but then-French president Nicolas Sarkozy put an end to Ankara’s dream.
Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, whose country officially declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and applied for EU membership last year, welcomed discussion on enlargement.
“We believe it’s in the interest of all, for all of the Western Balkan countries to join,” Osmani said.
However, she was quick to add that not all countries awaiting EU membership were willing to wait.
“It’s hard not to get impatient,” Osmani said, “especially when you do everything that you’re asked to do and then nothing happens.”