VBefore the European Council on Thursday, there are signs of broad support among member states for the EU Commission’s proposal to designate Ukraine and Moldova as candidate countries. There is a “broad, even complete consensus” on this, said French Europe Minister Clément Beaune after a preparatory meeting of Europe Ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday. No country raised fundamental objections. Several states, led by Austria, insisted that there should also be progress for the countries of the western Balkans. However, no country has made this a prerequisite for a decision on Ukraine and Moldova, said Beaune.
Before the meeting, Austrian Minister Karoline Edtstadler called for everything to be done “to help the countries of the Western Balkans, which have been on hold for years, to take the next step”. However, she left open what steps these would have to be and whether this was a condition for Vienna to agree to candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova. She wanted to explore “what is possible” and forge alliances, said the ÖVP politician. The Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer had previously made several connections, sometimes with the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, sometimes with granting candidate status to Bosnia-Hercegovina, which has been trying to do so since 2016.
Further conditions for accession negotiations
Beaune confirmed that the French Presidency is “very actively” trying to lift the Bulgarian government’s block on negotiations with North Macedonia. Both sides have made efforts to resolve the conflict in recent months. “I hope we can do that by the time of the European Council,” said Beaune, but risks and uncertainties remained. He referred to the difficult political situation in Bulgaria, where the government is in a serious crisis.
Beaune stressed that the candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova is only a “stage” on the way to EU accession and both countries have to fulfill further conditions before accession negotiations can be opened. Against this background, the French Minister for Europe again campaigned for President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to set up a “European political community” for countries that are not (yet) members of the European Union. It is not about an alternative to the EU, but about creating a political field “that will quickly allow Ukraine to enter into a connection with the European project”.
The Minister of State in the Federal Foreign Office, Anna Lührmann, said that the well-being and the EU perspective of the Balkans were also a priority for the federal government. “It must now also be a matter of the European Council sending a signal to Kosovo on Friday that visa liberalization is finally coming,” she demanded. The EU Commission had already proposed this in 2018, but it was blocked by France and the Netherlands in the Council.