Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – MEP Andrius Kubilius has supported the speedy enlargement of the European Union to Ukraine and the Balkans.
Should the EU Accelerate Expansion to Include Ukraine?
The European Union should prioritise growth over the next five years, if necessary permitting war-torn Ukraine to join the union in stages, he said. In his comments, Andrius Kubilius, an MEP who was twice Lithuania’s Prime Minister, highlighted the geopolitical case for returning to an early-2000s philosophy that witnessed ten new countries join the bloc at once.Â
What Role Could a New EU Defence Commissioner Play?
Noting his country’s security incident as Russia’s neighbour, Kubilius expressed he’s “looking to portfolios related with growth or defence,” suggesting it might be he that leads accession discussions with the likes of Kyiv and Belgrade.Â
European Commission President Von der Leyen has already pledged a new defence commissioner role, to support the EU industry in the wake of renewed Russian belligerence. But, with nations such as Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia waiting in the attachments to join, she could also make enlargement – the process of vetting and accepting new members — a central element of her second term, just as climate change policy was for her first, Kubilius expressed.
How Might EU Enlargement Impact Future Geopolitics
“Enlargement can be … this new flagship project,” he stated, citing the necessity to “influence how the European Union will live during the next 50 years.” Baltic states that merged in 2004 have the right experience, he considers. He was Prime Minister when Lithuania started its own Brussels talks in 2000 – and expressed the EU’s need to get back to the open philosophy it had back then.Â
EU enlargement has taken a back seat of late; in 2014, the year after Croatia joined, von der Leyen’s predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker expressed there’d be no more new members under his five-year term. The policy has now acquired a geopolitical boost: Brussels — keen to establish its political support in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion — formally extended talks with Kyiv in June. Â
Should Smaller Nations Join the EU Ahead of Ukraine?
Kubilius indicates there could now be some loose thinking from Brussels: that smaller countries could join before the bigger Ukraine, and that accession could be incremental. “There are even some ideas that, first of all, the country should jump into the single market, then should go with all other chapters: so-called progressive integration or phased integration,” he stated.
