German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “undertook” this Monday in Prague to support an enlargement of the European Union to several Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, imagining an EU comprising “30 or 36 members “. “The fact that the EU continues to expand towards the East is an advantage for all of us”, argued the German Chancellor during a speech on the future of Europe given in Prague.
Olaf Scholz went so far as to mention “a European Union of 30 or 36 States”, which is very “different from our current Union”. “The center of Europe is moving east,” he said. In this future configuration, the operating rules will necessarily have to evolve, according to the Chancellor.
Majority decision-making?
“In this enlarged Union, the differences between the Member States will increase in terms of political interests, economic power or social systems,” he explained. “Ukraine is not Luxembourg. And Portugal does not look at the challenges of the world in the same way as North Macedonia”, described Olaf Scholz.
Thus, “where unanimity is now required (within the EU), the risk of a single country preventing all the others from moving forward with its veto increases with each new member state”, argued the German chancellor. “That is why I proposed to move gradually to majority decision-making in common foreign policy, but also in other areas, such as fiscal policy,” explained Olaf Scholz, not hiding the fact that “ this would also have consequences for Germany”.
For him, “sticking to the principle of unanimity only works as long as the pressure to act is weak. But this is no longer the case in view of the change of era” caused, according to him, by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A possible enlargement would have repercussions, according to Olaf Scholz, on the composition of the European Parliament. On the other hand, he says he remains committed to the principle of one European commissioner per country.
The Chancellor also reiterated his support for Emmanuel Macron’s proposal for a “European Political Community”. Within this new forum, “we would discuss once or twice a year the central themes that concern our continent as a whole: security, energy, climate or connectivity”, he said.
Germany wants special responsibility in military aid
Olaf Scholz wants the West to establish a “reliable, long-term division of labour” regarding military support for Ukraine. In this context, Olaf Scholz said he could “imagine that Germany assumes a particular responsibility in terms of strengthening Ukraine’s artillery and air defense capabilities”. “Our goal is to have modern Ukrainian armed forces capable of sustainably defending their country,” he insisted, calling for more “planning and coordination” between the allies.
The German Chancellor, who is regularly the target of criticism for the supposed timidity of his country’s arms deliveries to Ukraine, recently indicated that Berlin would deliver around 500 million euros of new armaments to kyiv, including Iris-T air defense systems. “We will maintain this support, reliably and above all, for as long as necessary,” said Olaf Scholz, assuring that this also applied to the reconstruction of Ukraine “which will be an effort of several generations”.
A conference of experts on the reconstruction of Ukraine, in which the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is to take part in particular, will be held on October 25 in Berlin.