EESC CORNER: The EU Enlargement: Opportunities, Challenges, and the Path Forward

The future enlargement of the EU is a crucial topic that deserves our attention as well as proper preparation. That is why it is high on the agenda of the European Economic and Social Committee, which adopted an own-initiative opinion on the potential challenges for the European Single Market arising from the future enlargement of the Union at its last plenary session in December.

In its opinion, the EESC believes that the EU enlargement is a success story and welcomes the dynamics, needed also in the context of the current exceptional geopolitical circumstances and growing challenges. In addition to its geostrategic importance, enlargement also means new business opportunities for European companies, a larger market for businesses and consumers, as well as better access to critical raw materials and thus a more resilient Europe.

At the same time, the opinion points to the importance of the EU Single Market and the missed opportunities due to its incompleteness. Therefore, it brings a sense of urgency and the need for rapid reforms, as not only the candidate states must prepare for membership. Before their accession, the EU must also do its homework and, among others, introduce the necessary regulatory changes.

Among other things, the EESC also points to the lessons learnt from previous enlargements and urges the European Commission and candidate countries to consider and manage the impacts of enlargement in order to avoid creating the dynamic of winners and losers. For further information about the opinion, please visit the EESC website.

I had the pleasure of being part of the study group tasked with working on the opinion. I pointed to geopolitical events that have created new momentum around the EU´s enlargement policy and its role in contributing to the stability and prosperity of our continent. Among other things, I emphasized that accession should be a merit-based process with strict conditionality. In addition, accession requires the ownership of both the candidate countries and the EU, as well as support for candidate countries. Moreover, a successful enlargement policy depends on concrete steps to deepen the EU Single Market, which must be our priority.