Yesterday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock organized an interministerial conference in Berlin with the telling title: “A bigger and stronger Union – making the European Union capable of expansion and preparing future members for accession.” The list of participants deserves attention because Italy did not send a representative at political level , neither a minister nor a deputy minister nor an undersecretary, we were only present at a technical level (better than nothing, but not enough). The foreign ministers of Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey and Ukraine were present. While France, Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Ireland, Moldova, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Serbia sent either a Minister for European Affairs (Laurence Boone was there) or a Deputy Foreign Minister or a Foreign Minister.
For Baerbock, “the European Union must be expanded.” This is the geopolitical consequence of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.” In a speech on August 29, 2022 in Prague, Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already spoken of the geopolitical necessity of expansion and the need to immediately start reflecting on the future of the EU, starting from the assumption that “form must follow function”. The position that emerged yesterday is that of Baerbock: a pragmatic approach is needed, i.e. sectoral integration, in order to avoid the “frustration” of waiting too long. That means allowing candidate countries to access EU benefits in some areas before they become full members. Baerbock said they could participate as observers in the councils for the sectors where they had already achieved the required standards. He also spoke of the need to overcome unanimity and move to qualified majority voting on a number of decisions, starting with foreign policy, and to divide the Commission’s portfolios so that countries jointly lead an area of responsibility, in order to avoid a multiplication of commissioners .
However, he also warned that cherry-picking must be avoided and that the starting point must be respect for the rule of law and EU values. The risk, however, is to see a Europe à la carte. Yesterday, North Macedonia’s Foreign Minister even went so far as to imagine access to structural and cohesion funds before the process is completed, in order not to lose the pro-European enthusiasm of citizens who will have to wait decades for accession. And Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, present at the conference, said that Kiev’s membership would strengthen the EU, but above all that “EU reform should not hold enlargement hostage.” Will it be a concentric circles EU, multi-speed or sectoral integration or gradual integration? The discussion has begun and once again the Franco-German engine will drive the transformation forward.