Costa defends EU reforms ‘with more than 30 members’ in coming years

Prime Minister António Costa this Friday defended the institutional and budgetary reforms of the European Union (EU) with “more than 30 members” in the coming years, stressing that the bloc of communities must be “in conditions” for enlargement.

“It is necessary to adapt both our institutional and budgetary architecture to a Europe that will no longer be 27 people, but which will certainly become a Europe with more than 30 participants in the coming years,” said the head of the Portuguese government.

Speaking in a press statement following the Southern European Union Summit (MED9), which took place this Friday in the Maltese capital of La Valletta, Antonio Costa noted that the enlargement process, especially through Ukraine, which received candidate country status a year ago, “requires adaptation of European institutional rules.”

“It is not enough to check whether others meet the EU accession criteria, it is important that we put ourselves in a position to successfully welcome everyone we invite to join the EU,” he stressed.

The MED9 meeting, which, in addition to Portugal, includes the heads of government and state of Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Malta, Italy, Slovenia and Spain (which is absent today due to the internal political crisis), was also aimed at preparing an informal summit in Granada, which will take place next Friday as part of the Spanish Presidency of the EU.

On this occasion, the topic of enlargement will be one of the main topics discussed, while there are several calls for the start of formal negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova by the end of this year, a process for which all HUH member states have agreed.

In mid-2022, EU member states took the historic decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, joining a wider group of countries, some of which have long been in the “queue” to join the EU. progress in recent years.

This list now includes Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, North Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Moldova and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Enlargement is the process by which states join the EU after meeting political and economic requirements.

Any European state that respects the community’s democratic values ​​and seeks to promote them can apply for EU membership, but to do so it must go through a formal negotiation process (which can only be approved unanimously among the current EU member). Member States), followed by the necessary judicial, administrative and economic reforms.

The Council, when formulating common issues, establishes and controls the process of EU enlargement and accession negotiations, acting unanimously.

This Friday, António Costa also said that the MED9 summit “was an opportunity to prepare the European Council in Granada.”

On this occasion, the community bloc “will begin to discuss the main options that the EU will have to adopt in the coming months, taking into account enlargement, the need to reform economic governance rules to adapt them to investment needs.” what all countries will have to do […] in defence, in the fight against climate change, in the digital transition and to create a more competitive economy that is more resilient to disruptions in global value chains,” the Prime Minister said.