Austrian FM: EU needs to rethink its enlargement approach

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg believes that the EU should change its approach when accepting future members, such as Ukraine, Moldova or the countries of the Western Balkans.

Schallenberg made the remarks in Politico’s podcast, as reported by European Pravda.

"Enlargement is not a bureaucratic endeavour. It's not about legalistic endeavours. It is not about applying each comma and paragraph of the acquis communitaire. It is about exporting and safeguarding a certain model of life. Of free, open, and Western democracies," Schallenberg said.

He emphasised that there was such understanding in the past, including  1981, when Greece was admitted to the EU to preserve the young democracy and 1986, when Portugal and Spain, which survived a coup attempt five years earlier, were admitted.

"At that time, we understood, all the communities understood, that this is necessary to make sure that these countries are part of our family of values. And we have to do the same thing now. We have to do it with Ukraine, have to do it with Moldova and have to do it with the Western Balkans," Schallenberg noted.

"But we should also, if I may, leave behind us this kind of binary thinking we had in the past. It’s either all or one, either you’re not a member or you’re fully a member. I believe that we can have options. We can have countries being members without applying every part of acquis communitaire," the minister added.

Shallenberg said this is not even a question of changing the rules, but of political will.

He believes that the new member states could be observers in the EU Council, participate in discussions, but only 27 member states will make decisions. Additionally, he says, new countries can be included in a number of European policies, citing Horizon Europe as an example.

"We cannot wait, because if we wait, we might lose this region. We may lose Ukraine, again, we might lose the Western Balkans," the minister believes.