The European Council needs to shift the debate to the benefits of new accession steps and EU reform
The December European Council may grant the opening of EU accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. Most European leaders agree that the EU is morally obliged to support the EU perspective of countries that are clearly defending our values. A realisation has moreover kicked in that the countries in the Western Balkans cannot be kept in the EU waiting room forever and need to be offered membership perspective too. This in turn has prompted an urgent debate on how the EU should internally reform to be ‘FitFor30+’, something overdue according to some, but a non-starter for others.
European Council Experts’ Debrief
This op-ed is part of the TEPSA European Council Experts’ Debrief 'What does future EU enlargement require to be a success?'. The European Council Experts’ Debrief is a series of policy responses to the regularly published conclusions of the European Council. Each time the European Council meets for a summit, TEPSA gathers its leading academics to comment on the conclusions, analyse alliances formed, maintained, and broken, investigate policy implications, and suggest solutions to move Europe forward.
