EESC EU enlargement initiative inaugurated under the eyes of prime ministers of Albania and Montenegro

Brussels–After promises, the first initiative for concrete involvement of EU candidate countries: The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) today (Feb. 15) officially launched the EU enlargement candidate members initiative to integrate 131 members of civil society from the nine EU candidate countries -Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, and Ukraine – in the Committee’s consultative work through 2024, becoming the first EU institution to take this step.

“When I took office, I promised it as one of the first initiatives,” recalled the president of the EESC, Oliver Röpke, speaking of the involvement of the countries taking part in the EU enlargement project. After the launch initiative in September 2023 and the early January invitation to submit applications, “the response was huge, with 567 applications. It showed how dynamic and active the civil society in these countries is.”

131 members were chosen in February who will now be able to participate in the full cycle of opinions (study groups, section meetings, and plenary sessions), with a specific annual plenary on EU enlargement issues scheduled for September and the project evaluation in December 2024: as of today, 13 members from Albania, 9 from Bosnia and Herzegovina, 15 from Georgia, 16 from Moldova, 14 from Montenegro, 14 from North Macedonia, 13 from Serbia, 15 from Turkey, and 22 from Ukraine will be integrated into the committee. “It is a new phase. You can bring a new vision to the EU,” President Röpke said. “Membership in the EU is the political insurance against the threats of autocrats,” Vêra Jourová, Vice-President of the EU Commission for Values and Transparency, added, promising — ahead of the new European legislature and as a commitment of the future Commission–that “we will push integration with EU candidate countries wherever possible, there are many open doors” also thanks to the new Western Balkans Growth Plan.

The EESC initiative was presented in Brussels in the presence of the premiers of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, and Albania, Edi Rama. “We will do all our work in line with the merit-based approach. We don’t want shortcuts,” the Montenegrin prime minister assured, recalling that “we were the first to bring civil society representatives into the negotiating process” that began in 2012: “The government’s priority is to implement reforms, taking advantage of this positive moment” that began with the last year’s new political cycle. “Everyone should realize that the EU is important to us like we are important to the EU,” Albanian Prime Minister Rama warned, calling the EESC “the first great example of how we should see the near common future.” That is, “to be an integral and voting part,” also in the other EU institutions “at different levels and in different committees,” from Parliament to the Commission to the EU Council. Rama called the Union “more aware of the strategic importance of the Balkans not only in words but also in deeds,” even though “it is sad to see that we needed Putin to give us a jolt and open our eyes. We cannot wait for a new invasion, a new disaster” to push this process.

Where does EU enlargement stand

Of the six Western Balkan countries on the path to EU enlargement, four have already begun accession negotiations -Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia – one has received candidate status – Bosnia and Herzegovina – and the last has formally applied for and is awaiting the response of the 27 Member States -Kosovo. For Tirana and Skopje, negotiations began in July last year, after waiting eight and 17 years, respectively, while Podgorica and Belgrade are at this stage for 11 and nine years, respectively. After six years since applying for EU membership, Sarajevo became a candidate to join the Union on December 15, 2022, and the last European Council in December decided that accession negotiations could be opened “once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria has been achieved.” Pristina is in the most complicated position after the formal request sent at the end of last year: since its unilateral declaration of independence from Belgrade in 2008, five EU member states – Cyprus, Greece, Romania, Spain, and Slovakia – continue not to recognize it as a sovereign state.

The upheaval in EU enlargement began four days after the Russian armed aggression when, in the midst of the war, Ukraine applied for “immediate” membership in the Union, with the request signed on February 28, 2022, by President Zelensky. Demonstrating the irreversibility of a process of rapprochement with Brussels as a reaction to the risk of seeing its independence erased by Moscow, three days later (March 3) Georgia and Moldova followed the same path. The June 23, 2022  European Council approved the line drawn by the Commission in its recommendation: Kyiv and Chișinău became the sixth and seventh candidates for EU membership, while Tbilisi was recognized as having a European perspective in the EU enlargement process. Following the recommendation in the EU Enlargement Package, the December 14-15, 2023 summit of EU leaders decided to start accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova and grant Georgia candidate status.

Negotiations for Turkey‘s accession to the European Union were launched in 2005 but put on ice since 2018, due to backward steps on democracy, rule of law, fundamental rights, and independence of the judiciary. The chapter on Turkey in the latest annual Enlargement Package presented in October 2022, clearly states that it “does not reverse course and continues to move away from EU positions on the rule of law, increasing tensions over border respect in the Eastern Mediterranean.” At the NATO summit in Vilnius at the end of June, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, tried to force his hand, threatening to bind Sweden’s membership in the Atlantic Alliance when Brussels opened Turkey’s path back to the EU. The blackmail failed, but a strategic report meeting in Brussels adressed the dossier on Ankara in Brussels.