Verbatim report of proceedings

Monday, 10 February 2020 - Strasbourg

Assessment of the revised enlargement methodology proposal of the Commission (debate)

  Ilhan Kyuchyuk, on behalf of the Renew Group. – Madam President, this time I want to start from the end of my speech, Mr Commissioner, from the failure of last October’s Council. In my opinion, we cannot afford another failure in March. I am in agreement with you when you say that we have to learn our lesson and not promise something that we cannot deliver. But today, we have to see how we can go forward together and deliver on the European aspirations of the people of the Western Balkans, and I hope this time we will not see any last—minute surprises.

It is too early to come to a general conclusion on how the new methodology will work, but in order to enhance the effectiveness of the accession process, it should provide dynamism rather than complicating the enlargement process and this must mean a stronger focus on fundamental reforms, the organisation of the chapters in thematic clusters and clear conditionality. I am very much in favour of this new process, but I do not want to see this new idea turn into a new condition that will again leave the region in the backyard of the EU for a long time.

This is what we have tried to propose in our political group. We recently adopted the Renew Europe policy paper on the Western Balkans, which is based on our values and understanding of enlargement. We want the citizens and the societies of the candidate countries to be more closely associated with and benefit from the accession process. We want to integrate our partners there at an earlier stage in key policies, like the Green Deal, digital policies and connectivity, and to give them the chance to reform and benefit long before actual accession. The European perspective is a strong driving force for the reforms of the region. Realising that our group has always pursued a clear and consistent enlargement policy, we believe that reforms related to the EU should go hand in hand with the enlargement process. We need to reform the European Union not because of the Western Balkan countries, but because of the European Union itself.