The EU is ready to expand: who is the main candidate?

Which of the candidates will be the first to join the EU? What kind of support does Ukraine have? Why is it beneficial for the European Union to accept new members? When will the welfare of candidate countries improve? All this was discussed at the EU summit in Granada. At the informal summit of the European Union in Granada on Friday, October 6, EU leaders discussed its future. The meeting marked the beginning of a large and complex discussion on the EU enlargement strategy. And it was not only about what the candidate countries, including Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, should do to join the European Union, but also how he himself should prepare for expansion. 

For example, what reforms should be carried out, what new laws should be adopted, how this expansion will be financed. In particular, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz believes that the EU will have to abandon the principle of unanimity in foreign and tax policy and decide everything by majority vote in the future. He also suggests deciding on the future size of the European Commission and the distribution of seats in the European Parliament, rather than "simply expanding the European Commission and inventing new ministries."  

The European Union is "not a closed club" 
So far, we are talking about the fact that the next expansion should take place in 2030. Some leaders, such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaya Kallas, believe that it is too late. "For our part, we must be ready by 2030. We need to speed up. It has been many years since we last admitted a new country to the EU," she says. According to Kallas, the EU will be able to introduce small countries, such as Montenegro, almost unnoticeably, while large ones will require a lot of work. Therefore, her proposal is to start by accepting small countries and demonstrate that the EU is "not a closed club." The last stage of expansion took place in the European Union ten years ago, when Croatia was admitted to it. 

However, accession to the EU is not based on size, but solely on merit, said Charles Michel, President of the European Council. And deadlines are an incentive to fulfill the necessary conditions on time, he believes: "It will be right to set a date by which everyone must fulfill their obligations." At the same time, not only candidates, but also the European Union must fulfill their obligations, he pointed out. 

According to Michel, in order to prepare for enlargement, it is important for the EU to answer three questions: "what do we want to do together, that is, what are our priorities and common policy?", "how will we pay for expansion? - a difficult question, when it comes to money, it is always difficult" and "how will we make joint decisions?". He called the current summit the starting point for this, and called the summer of 2024 as the deadline for developing answers. 

The EU's goal is to strengthen the defense capability
As for priorities and general policy, against the background of Russia's war against Ukraine, the leaders in Granada decided to "strengthen defense readiness and invest in defense potential by developing the technological and industrial base" of the European Union. "We will also focus on military mobility, resilience in space and countering cyber and hybrid threats, as well as foreign information manipulation throughout the European Union," the final declaration of the summit says. In the coming weeks, the European Commission will present a strategy for the development of the defense industry, its head Ursula von der Leyen promised at the summit. 

It was also decided to develop the EU single market, provide citizens with access to inexpensive energy, increase the energy sovereignty of the European Union and reduce dependence on external actors in other key areas. At the same time, EU enlargement is a geostrategic investment in peace and security, its members are convinced.

The extension is supported by all
For Europe, enlargement is great, says Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, primarily to strengthen the values on which the European Union is based: "It helps to consolidate democracy, guarantee human rights and contributes to the growth of the European economy. Therefore, I welcome the enlargement of the EU, not only at the expense of Ukraine, but also of the Balkan countries."  

In a joint statement, the admission of new states to the European Union was called "a driving force for improving the economic and social living conditions of European citizens and reducing inequality between countries."  

"The window of opportunity will close quickly"
"When the countries that we currently support financially join the EU, there will be convergence, and the welfare of these countries will increase, so they will no longer need such a lot of support," says Kaya Kallas. She called Estonia a positive example of how the welfare of the country and its residents has grown thanks to membership in the European Union: when Estonia joined the EU in 2004, Estonia's GDP was 48% of the average GDP in the EU countries, and now it has reached 80%.