New European Union enlargement procedure

7.2.2020

Question for written answer  E-000775/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Jérôme Rivière (ID)

In its Communication ‘Enhancing the accession process - A credible EU perspective for the Western Balkans’, published on 5 February 2020, the Commission presented a whole series of changes aimed at addressing criticisms of the current enlargement procedure for the benefit of the Western Balkan countries such as North Macedonia or Albania.

It seeks to enhance the process so that it is ‘better equipped to deal with structural weaknesses in the countries’. Structural weaknesses there are, indeed: an economic and social situation that falls far short of the average for the EU Member States, serious crime, corruption, trafficking, the influence of Islamism.

Therefore, the only reasonable alternative to the current policy is simply to suspend the procedures initiated. This being so, when will the Commission abandon its megalomania and renounce the idea of any further enlargement?

What is it waiting for before halting the negotiations with Turkey? Will the new principle of reversibility allow it to do so?

Will it have the courage to apply it?