The pros and cons of EU expansion

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The European Union needs significant reforms to a number of its institutions and policies before it can accept new member states, according to a report jointly authored by France and Germany.

Twelve experts from the two main member states have said that “stronger rule of law rules, new voting procedures in the European Council and a bigger EU budget” may be needed if it is to be is growing significantly, said Euronews. The report comes as the debate around EU expansion “intensifies”, with the bloc under pressure to start admitting new members by 2030.

There are major concerns about the EU’s “ability to integrate” new members in its current form, said Euronewsand reforms must be undertaken to ensure that decisions can be made “quickly and efficiently” with a larger number of members.

Here are the main advantages and disadvantages of the enlargement of the European Union.

Pro: strengthens defenses

The “potential wave of expansion” could help the EU and its member countries “stand up” to Vladimir Putin, French Europe Minister Laurence Boone told a news conference. Policy. Potential new members, including Ukraine, Moldova and other Western Balkan countries, are “prime targets” of Russian “influence campaigns” that aim to “weaken support” for the bloc and prevent these states to join it.

EU membership would also “build resilient and sustainable societies in the region,” wrote Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto: EURACTIV. Some candidate members have already “fully aligned themselves with EU sanctions against Russia”, which sends a “clear message” against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Disadvantage: tedious process

Although the EU is often quick to grant candidate status to potential members, this “should not distract from the fact that becoming a member “usually takes about a decade”, says lead researcher Félix Krawatzek at the Center for Eastern European and International Studies. said Carnegie Europe.

The EU’s current relations with the Western Balkans are “characterized by broken promises, inertia and impasse”, added John O’Brennan, professor and holder of the Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration at the Maynooth University. This creates a “growing distrust” between the EU and “foreigners”, and at the moment there is no “incentive to implement the reforms” imposed by the EU on the candidate countries, because they do not believe that “this will be rewarded by progress in their country”. accession”.

“Membership” by member countries has become the biggest obstacle, he added, and EU members must be “serious about the process” of enlargement and “lead rather than hinder” accessions. .

For: economic growth

The path to a larger European Union ‘will take time’, but each expansion so far ‘has been beneficial and has led to economic growth and improved well-being for the whole Union’ , wrote Cecilia Malmström during the press conference. Peterson Institute for International Economics. The “initial cost” will be high, she added, and “the EU budget must be reformed” before enlargement continues, but the prospect of “political stability and democracy stronger” in the candidate countries “will benefit the entire continent”.

The path to get there will be “long and strewn with pitfalls,” Malmström wrote, “but it is absolutely necessary to travel it.”

Disadvantage: limb disorders

The arrival of potential new member states and their respective economic strengths and weaknesses are already causing discontent among some EU members. The bloc is in constant struggle with Poland and Hungary over “their attitude to the domestic rule of law, including fair elections and an independent judiciary,” Alan Beattie said in the statement. Financial Times. Their “antics” have “shaken the traditional belief” that the path to liberal democracy is obvious with EU membership, he added.

Both member states, along with Slovakia, have since “blatantly” ignored “EU single market and foreign trade commitments” by blocking Ukrainian grain exports to the bloc, a benefit of candidate status of Ukraine. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia say it is to protect “worried farmers”, but it remains the “biggest challenge to the EU’s credibility in decades”, lacking a “coherent and regulated response” .

Advantage: speed up decisions

On a range of issues, from foreign policy to taxation, the EU is currently “demanding unanimous decisions” from all 27 member states – which has been accused of “significantly slowing down or even blocking the development of the ‘EU’ in recent years, said Reuters.

Further expansion from 2030 would require abandoning the unanimous decision-making process, the report from France and Germany suggests, with decisions taken “by qualified majority” on all issues. This would undoubtedly speed up policy development, but a sticking point remains the “long and difficult process” to change the rule, which itself “would require unanimity.”

Disadvantage: constitutional questions

Expansion in the near future will almost certainly require reforms and treaty changes. By “convening a constitutional convention”, as the European Commission and Parliament have suggested if more members sign up, the EU is adopting a “high-risk strategy”, wrote Michael Leigh of Johns Hopkins University at Online GIS Reports.

The treaty changes “would provide Eurosceptic leaders with the opportunity to make demands”, he said, thereby weakening the EU by “transferring competences to the national level” on issues such as “law, migration and human rights”. Some changes “would require referendums in some countries” and these would inevitably be “fought on domestic issues”. If the changes are rejected by a group of member states, it could end up plunging the EU into a “constitutional crisis”.