New accession methodology adopted by EC College of Commissioners
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The College of the European Commission has adopted a proposal for a new methodology for the accession negotiations today.
“The whole process needs to be more credible, more predictable, more dynamic and more political”, stated the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi while presenting the Commission’s proposal at a press conference today reported amongst others by European Western Balkans site.
He explained that the purpose of the proposal is to re-establish the credible EU perspective for the Western Balkans.
The highlights of the document include clustering the negotiating chapters in thematic areas, possibility for rewarding the reforms with more funding and phasing-in of candidates to individual policies, but also sanctioning lack of progress by putting the negotiations on hold in certain areas, or in the most serious cases, their overall suspension.
New Europe says that the changes can be seen as a substantial victory for French President Emmanuel Macron who froze the accession plans of Albania and North Macedonia last October in order to reform the process; it also underscores France’s drive to take control of major EU political developments from Germany, after Brexit.
It remains to be seen if the new procedures will serve to unblock the accession pathway for Albania and North Macedonia which many observers feel is possible at upcoming EU Summits that focus on the subject.
In the EU’s new post-Brexit reality, some member states are concerned that if the EU doesn’t offer a clear path towards accession, the countries in the Balkan region could reverse course and seek better relations and strategic ties with Russia, Turkey, or China, right in the EU’s backyard.
Despite this unsettled background, some member states want to slow any EU expansion for those aspirant countries that may not be ready to take on full commitments on such issues as corruption and the rule of law, even though it has been clearly demonstrated that EU membership in itself does not guarantee sustained progress on these concerns.
